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England scrum-half Alex Mitchell says Northampton Saints want to go “one better” than last season after starting their European Champions Cup campaign with victory in Pau.
Saints went all the way to the final in 2024-25 only to come up short against Bordeaux at the Millennium Stadium in May.
On Sunday The Prem leaders came from 14-12 behind at half-time to win 35-27, with Mitchell scoring one of their five tries in his 150th game for the club.
“We love the Prem but we try and go really hard at this competition, obviously getting to the semi-final (two seasons ago) and final last year. We want to go one better,” Mitchell told BBC Radio Northampton.
“I thought we were the better side but just didn’t get a great performance. In the last 20 minutes we dug in and got a couple of tries, and to come away from home and get five points here is still pretty good.
“It was really physical, we had to deal with that, and credit to them, they’re a quality side and second in the Top 14 as well, so it’s no mean feat to come here and get a result.”
Mitchell said having several decisions in the game referred to the Television Match Official (TMO) had affected their rhythm.
“The TMO got involved a fair bit, made it a bit clunky, stop start, which we don’t always enjoy, we want the game to flow,” he said.
“That was frustrating but they want to get the right decisions, it’s a tough job for them to do and that’s part and parcel of the game sometimes.”
Northampton were also a player short for 20 minutes after wing James Ramm was shown a red card for dangerously pulling down lock Thomas Jolmes when he was off the ground.
“With the rules they brought in with regards to competing in the air, things like that are going to happen,” Northampton’s director of rugby Phil Dowson said.
“Rambo [Ramm] hasn’t meant to drag him down, he’s gone to slap the ball back and it happens in nano-seconds. I would say that’s a yellow card. But a 20-minute red, we had to deal with it and there were other things in the game from a refereeing point of view that I thought were more obvious than that.”
Saints will be at home to South African side Pretoria Bulls at Franklin’s Gardens in their next group game on Sunday.
“They’re a handful – the Springboks are world champions and they’ve got a ton of them in their squad,” said Dowson.
“They’ve got loads of speed on the outside, they’re a dangerous group, very powerful, and one of the most dominant Currie [Cup] sides. It’s going to be a real good challenge for us.”
