Saints look to bounce back after Champions Cup exit

Ed Prowse came through the Northampton academy and made his first-team debut in 2022 [Getty Images]

Northampton Saints want to right the wrongs of their European Champions Cup exit as they push on in search of The Prem title, says forward Ed Prowse.

They bowed out of Europe at the quarter-final stage last Friday, losing a thrilling encounter with Bath 43-41 at The Rec.

It was a tough one to take for Phil Dowson's side, who were 21 points ahead at one stage, but they remain top of the Prem table after winning 10 out of 12 so far.

They are away to fourth-placed Exeter on Saturday and Prowse told BBC Radio Northampton: "It was a tough pill to swallow, we were absolutely gutted.

"We know we could have won that game but there were a couple of things that weren't quite good enough - we want to right those wrongs this weekend, going into the run-in for The Prem."

Saints were crowned champions in 2024 after beating Bath at Twickenham and the match against Exeter is another stepping stone towards a home semi-final in the end-of-season play-offs.

"It's going to be a big emotional driver for us that we weren't quite at it last weekend, and we'll be absolutely firing going into this game," said Prowse.

The two teams drew 33-33 at Franklin's Gardens back in September, but Exeter made home advantage count when they came out on top 31-14 in their Prem Rugby Cup meeting last month.

Prowse, who has made 20 appearances this season and signed a new contract with the club in January, added: "We've learned our lessons from that encounter and need to make sure we're showing up in these big games from now on.

"We need to be doing better. I don't think we got our game on the park well enough on that day and didn't really get functioning."

One plus from the Bath game was the return of wing George Hendy after a month out of action with a knee injury.

Hendy said they had shown they can "put 40 points on anyone" but had to improve the defensive side of their game.

"If we can keep teams out, rather than making it a basketball game, that's when we can take a bit of that 50-50ness out of those games," Hendy added.

"It's easy to come out on the wrong side of games like that when it's end-to-end for a lot of the time. If we can cut out one or two of those and be tighter, that will be pretty good for the run-in."