'Whole squad effort' needed by Saints - Scott-Young

Angus Scott-Young has made 15 appearances this season, eight of them starts

Northampton Saints back row Angus Scott-Young says it is up to their squad players to step up into leading roles to revive their chances of reaching the end-of-season play-offs.

Saints have won three of their four games in the European Champions Cup, but only have a 50% success rate after 10 matches in the Premiership.

They will be without nine players because of the upcoming Six Nations, with Henry Pollock and Curtis Langdon added to England's squad on Tuesday.

"We have guys who've been waiting and training, they'll get more opportunities now which is very exciting (for them)," Scott-Young told BBC Radio Northampton.

"It's definitely a whole squad effort. We've got a big squad and use pretty much everyone throughout the year."

Northampton have been involved in some high-scoring games in both competitions recently - with more than 60 points on the board in each of the past five.

"We've had some decent success in Europe, finishing top of our pool, we've just got to find that consistency in the Prem a bit more," said Scott-Young.

"We're still eighth but it's very close, like it always is this time of year. The difference between third and eighth is only a few points, so a few wins in the next few fixtures in the Prem will see us climb up the ladder."

They go to Harlequins on Saturday still looking for their first away win in the league this season.

"It'll be an interesting challenge down at The Stoop," said Scott-Young.

"It's a great place to play and some slightly changed squads will be a recipe for some exciting rugby.

"We have a similar brand of rugby, positive in the way you want to move the ball, an attacking style, and I'm sure we'll see a lot of that from both sides."

Northampton beat Quins, the team immediately above them in the table, 33-29 at home in October and the London club will have some key personnel absent on Saturday.

"What we've talked about throughout rugby for the last couple of years is we want to have as few games as possible where we're missing players - it would have been great to see Fin Smith against Marcus Smith this weekend," said Saints director of rugby Phil Dowson.

"Unfortunately that's not going to happen but we're still going to see a lot of good players who are desperate to perform for their respective clubs.

"They're shorn of some talent, but so are we, but that's the whole point of having a squad."