But when I arrived back in England and started thinking things over, I was disappointed that we hadn't won the Pretoria Test as well We did enough to take the series 2-0. I suppose that's what being an international sportsman is all about: you're never satisfied with what you have, you always set your sights that little bit higher."Certainly, I feel that way with Saracens. I don't want to start shouting about the things we can achieve this season, but it's obvious what we want from the campaign. We want the things that Northampton had last season: the pressure and the challenge of being involved in everything, right to the bitter end. Yes, I know they were on their knees and playing injured - I have first-hand experience of all that - but in the end, they came away with the Heineken Cup while we came away with zip."Being captain increases the desire because you identify yourself so completely with your team. In the past, I might have said to myself: 'We may have lost, but at least I had a good one.' I don't think like that now. I may have an stormer of a game, but it will be of consolation to me if we've lost the match.

I don't judge myself on my own performance, but on the performance of the side. That's the burden you take on when you accept the honour of the captaincy.". Tradition dictates that whenever English clubs dip a tentative toe in the stormy waters of French rugby, they kick off with their first-choice personnel all present and correct but end up with half a dozen stretcher cases and another three or four players missing in action. Northampton will buck the trend in Biarritz this afternoon by launching the defence of their Heineken Cup title in a state of serious physical distress and hoping against hope that they will grow stronger, rather than weaker, in the face of overwhelming adversity.

Tradition dictates that whenever English clubs dip a tentative toe in the stormy waters of French rugby, they kick off with their first-choice personnel all present and correct but end up with half a dozen stretcher cases and another three or four players missing in action. Northampton will buck the trend in Biarritz this afternoon by launching the defence of their Heineken Cup title in a state of serious physical distress and hoping against hope that they will grow stronger, rather than weaker, in the face of overwhelming adversity. Well, there is nothing like blind faith to help a team through a crisis when everything else has turned to sludge. When Paul Grayson, still the most dependable big-moment goal-kicker in the English game and the man who booted the Midlanders all the way to the European championship last season, cried off yesterday after failing a fitness test on his dodgy knee, it was no more than his club-mates expected. Indeed, the stoics of Franklin's Gardens took the view that one more injury calamity was really neither here nor there.Most of the central figures in the Saints millennial glory march have either just returned from injury - Garry Pagel, Tim Rodber, Matt Allen - or are still shuffling around in hospital slippers - Nick Beal, Craig Moir, Matt Dawson. Ali Hepher's unexpectedly swift recovery from close-season surgery at least means the holders will have a bona fide outside-half when they take on Gonzalez, Botica, Osborne and the Lievremonts at Parc des Sports d'Aguilera, but they will need more than an out-of-practice running No 10 to leave any visible mark on Serge Blanco territory.Dawson, torn between an urgent desire to resume playing and an equally strong fear of exposing his fragile shoulder to the slings and arrows of Continental rugby before it is fully up to scratch, is only too well aware of the demanding nature of this afternoon's brouhaha with the Basques. "When we walk into grounds now, read the programme and listen to the announcements over the PA system, it's always there: "Welcome to the European champions," said the injured scrum-half "If you don't react properly, the title can become a burden. I'm quite certain that in the early games of this season, we didn't realise how much of a lift our presence gave to opposing sides - Sale, for instance, reached a level against us last month that we didn't expect."The same will happen in all our European pool games, so we must forget about our recent league results and prepare ourselves for a very different challenge.