Last-gasp hero Foden hoping Quins win can be turning point for Saints

Ben Foden believes last weekend's win at Harlequins can be a turning point in Saints' season.
Ben Foden scored Saints' winning try at Harlequins (picture: Kirsty Edmonds)Ben Foden scored Saints' winning try at Harlequins (picture: Kirsty Edmonds)
Ben Foden scored Saints' winning try at Harlequins (picture: Kirsty Edmonds)

Jim Mallinder’s men looked set to suffer an agonising defeat at The Stoop, but Harlequins fly-half Ben Botica failed in his attempt to boot the ball out to end the game.

That led to Foden picking up the ball as he started and finished a move that secured a stunning 27-23 victory.

It means Saints are now just seven points behind fourth-placed Quins in the Aviva Premiership standings.

And with games against the league’s bottom three sides to come in the next three weeks, they will expect to string some wins together.

“We’ll take a lot of confidence from playing with the ball in hand last weekend,” Foden said.

“We know London Irish will come and want to play an open game and score tries, but I think we can match them.

“We can lean on our set piece at times, but we can then release the boys out wide and we’ll see the ball in hand a bit more.

“We know they’ll be confident because they won last weekend (against Worcester) and they beat us last time we played against them (on Boxing Day).

“That was another game we should have put away but we didn’t quite manage it in the last few minutes, so we were on the opposite side of that.

“We know there’s no such thing as an easy game and they’re a team desperate for points to get out of that relegation battle.

“For us we need to win and it’s a big game for us.

“Hopefully we can look back at the season and look at the Harlequins game as a real turning point that helped us pick up points and compete for that top-four spot.

“We’re excited to get out there at the weekend.”