Sam Graham: Northampton will take 'real hard look at themselves' after Bristol rout
- Published
Sam Graham tries to gather the ball during Northampton's heavy defeat at Ashton Gate
Northampton back row Sam Graham says the players will take a "long hard look" at themselves following Friday's 62-8 Premiership thrashing at Bristol.
Saints went into the game third in the table, with three successive league wins behind them.
But with a number of players absent because of injuries and international calls, they suffered their worst result in the Premiership.
"We'll review it honestly," Graham told BBC Radio Northampton.
"Within this group, there is still so much confidence.
"We'll take a real long hard look at ourselves and without being told, we'll know what we need to do.
"And next week it's about putting that on the pitch [against Bath]."
Northampton remained third - ahead of Saturday's games - despite the result, with four more games to play, but they are only four points ahead of Gloucester, and five clear of Exeter and Leicester, who are fifth and sixth.
Director of rugby Phil Dowson admitted his side's vulnerabilities had been "cruelly exposed" by a Bears side who ran in nine tries.
"I think that is going to hurt for quite a while," said Graham.
"There was a lot of expectation on the back of a good run which we wanted to keep rolling.
"It just goes to show that [it's about] small margins, if you don't get things right, you get punished at this level.
"I know that's said quite a lot but it was messy and we couldn't get momentum onto the ball like we had last week, whereas they were quick in that area.
"It felt as if the floodgates opened and that's really disappointing. It's not who we are as a team and our resilience has got to be a bit better than that if we are talking about top four."
Following Friday's home game against Bath, Saints travel to London Irish before taking on leaders Saracens at home and then ending their regular-season schedule with a trip to Newcastle Falcons.
They reached the play-offs last season before losing to eventual champions Leicester, the first time they had finished in the top four since 2019.