Dingwall frustrated as wins against title rivals continue to elude Saints

Games against the likes of Sale Sharks, Saracens, Leicester Tigers and Quins have come and gone with plenty of positives but nowhere near enough Gallagher Premiership points.

Saints threaten to deliver big wins on the big occasions, but they so rarely do.

And that means their aim, which is to be a top-two side, continues to look far away.

It was the same old story last Sunday as Phil Dowson's side failed to take advantage of the myriad big moments that they created.

They did manage to score four tries at the Twickenham Stoop, but, incredibly, Quins scored five, despite having just 23 per cent of the territory.

Saints were not ruthless enough in both red zones, and they paid the price.

But it is nothing new.

They took the game to Tigers in the Premiership semi-final back in June, only for an abundance of missed first-half chances to cost them dear against the eventual champions.

It feels as though when the game is there for the taking, the pressure proves too much.

But when the game appears to be gone, Saints come alive, finishing the chances that they were unable to seize when the match still seemed to be in the balance.

It all makes for a huge feeling of frustration for players, coaches and fans.

And centre Fraser Dingwall spoke in typically impressive fashion about the situation following Sunday's defeat.

"The frustration for us is that we're coming close and we haven't beaten the top sides in the league, especially in the past two weeks," Dingwall said.

"Performances like the one on Sunday, you can get away with when you're playing the sides who aren't pushing towards the higher end of the table.

"But when you play the top teams like Leicester, Sarries and Quins, you have to play well for 80 minutes.

"You can't give good sides head-starts because it's too far to come back so that's the frustration.

"We want to be in the top two and the top four, and that means we have to beat the top sides.

"We're so close - we've just got to put performances in for longer periods of time."

Saints swarmed all over Harlequins during the first half on Sunday, so it was scarcely believable when they headed in at half-time 21-10 down.

Quins had caught Saints cold with two early tries, and then landed a sucker punch later in the half.

And Dingwall said: "It was very frustrating.

"In the first half we were poor, very loose and gave them way too many opportunities.

"We gave them a head-start into the game, purely through our errors.

"Second half, we showed a bit more what we were about, put some good stuff on the pitch, got some rewards and then again gave them probably a few cheap points.

"It was very frustrating.

"The first half is not a reflection of what we want to be at all. It was a great example of us getting into the right areas and giving away the ball too cheaply over and over again.

"The amount of times we were in their 22 and gave the ball away without making them work is just unacceptable by our standards.

"The really frustrating thing is when we get things right, we're really creating chances.

"We don't need to go forcing things because when we play well we create so much and things are going to come our way.

"It just makes it even more frustrating that the opportunities are there, we're going to get them and we've got to take them so we don't have to go searching and forcing them as much."