Time for Saints to 'right some wrongs' - Freeman

Tommy Freeman has scored six tries in 12 appearances for Northampton this season

England back Tommy Freeman has urged Northampton Saints to go out and "right a few wrongs" after being thrashed by East Midlands rivals Leicester Tigers.

The reigning Premiership champions lost 33-0 at home to Leicester last Friday, a further blow to their chances of making this season's play-offs.

Freeman was rested against the Tigers after playing in every England match - and scoring five tries, one in each game - during the recent Six Nations, but hopes to return against Sale Sharks on Friday.

"It was tough (to watch), no one wants to be nilled at home in front of your own fans," Freeman told BBC Radio Northampton.

"When the game starts slipping away, you want to try more, create more and the more we tried to do stuff, the worse it got for us and everything went their way, which happens in rugby, but we'll definitely take some hard lessons and go from there.

"We've got to go into this week and the weeks to come and obviously win pretty much every game. We're going to go out and do our thing and know that when we get our game right, it normally takes care of itself."

Freeman added that, personally, a break following the Six Nations had been "definitely needed".

"I took a whack in that Wales game but the knee's feeling good now and having that mental break is massively important," he continued.

The 24-year-old, who has scored six tries in 12 appearances for Saints this season, said he had found the mood in the squad to be positive on his return to training, despite the Leicester setback.

"Sale is a tough place to go, I don't think we've won there since 2017, but we'll be looking to right a few wrongs and bounce back," he added.

"They know how to play their conditions and obviously do it well, but we'll make sure we bring some physicality to kind of 'give them a good punch in the face'."

Saints remain eighth in the table, but are now 10 points adrift of fourth place, with just six matches left to play - the first against Sale, who are sixth.

Director of rugby Phil Dowson made more than 180 appearances for Saints during his playing career

Director of rugby Phil Dowson said Northampton needed to look back "forensically" at the Leicester game to assess exactly why that performance happened.

"There's loads of context around it," he told BBC Radio Northampton.

"We're a playing group, with a playing style, that requires a high level of connection and cohesiveness and we didn't have any of that - I think nine of the group hadn't trained together because of international duty and injuries, and we looked particularly rusty.

"At the same time, we looked very stressed and worried about what we were trying to do and that led to so many uncharacteristic errors in terms of skill execution, and we need to de-stress what we're trying to do and make sure we get our game on the pitch because we don't want that to be a reflection of us."

Dowson accepted that many Saints supporters were unhappy with the manner of their defeat by Leicester.

"It's not just the supporters who it's tough for," he added. "It's a blot on all our records, a blot on my reputation and the reputation of the players and it's my responsibility to make sure that doesn't happen again because it's not acceptable.

"I appreciate the fans are upset, but they can't possibly be more upset than a coaching group that is so emotionally invested and a playing group that kill themselves week in, week out to perform for the club."