'Stern words' at Saints as they get set for Bath battle

And the England man insists his side can't keep producing performances like the ones they have of late.

Saints have actually racked up back-to-back bonus-point wins in the Gallagher Premiership, beating Wasps and the Falcons.

But they have been involved in hugely nervy conclusions in both of those games, with Newcastle coming back from 32-14 down before losing 32-31 at cinch Stadium at Franklin's Gardens last weekend.

And Coles, who was named in the latest England squad on Monday, said: “We really got away with one.

“I'd love to say we play rugby to enterain the neutrals, but that's not what we want to be doing.

“We could have lost against Wasps, we could have lost against Newcastle and ultimately we managed to win ugly - but in the long run, performances like that are not going to be good enough.

“We've had pretty stern words with ourselves after the game because we ended up getting away with a few nice patches of rugby in which we got points on the board and we sort of hung on at the end.

“We didn't have enough control in the game, we didn't look after the ball that well so it was a real mixed bag.

“It's about trying to nail the way we want to play.

“We want to be a quick, high-tempo team and a lot of times it might look like we're taking high risk.

“When it goes right, we do our processes well, but sometimes that tempo can lead to us being a bit frantic, making the wrong decisions in the wrong areas.

“We're not exiting well enough and maybe we're overplaying in certain areas.

“It's about getting the fundamentals right because when we look after the breakdown, we look so good.

“Against Wasps the breakdown came unstuck, and we gave the ball away too many times against Newcastle.

“The game plan and DNA are there, but it's about us executing it more consistently.”

So how do Saints do that?

“It's about putting a bit of jeopardy on situations in training,” Coles said.

“We have to train at that standard to make sure things don't go unmentioned.

“We kicked off twice and gave penalties away so it was too easy for Newcastle to get out.

“We need to be able to control a game and play with that fast skillset.”

Next up for Saints is a trip to Bath, who have lost all six of their league games this season.

But Coles and Co are well aware of the threat their hosts will pose at The Rec on Saturday.

“Bath have got a team full of really talented individuals and I don't think we've got a good record at The Rec,” Coles said.

“As a pack, we need to look at ourselves and make sure we get more out of our maul. We need to start putting some of those opportunities away.

“Bath have a very physical forward pack so we need to have more control in the game as well as having that attacking flair that we do.

“We've won four in a row as a club (including cup games) and we'd rather be winning than losing, but we demand really high standards of ourselves in this group.

“We fell short in the (Premiership) semi-finals last year and we've got really high ambitions, which means you can't be complacent.

“We'd rather be a bit grumpy at ourselves and have won, but we'll look at things again and get better this week.”