Lawes discusses secret to Saints' recent success after delivering another huge showing

The black, green and gold have won four games on the spin in all competitions, toppling titans Harlequins, Saracens, Glasgow Warriors and Toulon on successive weekends.

It is now seven wins from eight games for Phil Dowson's men, whose only defeat during that time came on derby day at Leicester Tigers.

And following his man of the match performance in the stunning 22-19 win against Toulon on Friday night, Lawes was asked for the secret to Saints' current success.

"Our preparation is getting much better and we really know our identity as a team and what makes us tick," Lawes said. "When we bring that to the pitch, it's hard to stop us."

Saints lost three wingers to injury against Toulon, but somehow found the strength to come back from 19-15 down late on, with Tom Lockett's last-gasp try giving them a crucial bonus-point success.

It means they have now picked up nine points from a possible 10 at the start of their Investec Champions Cup campaign.

And Lawes said: "It was a hell of a shift from the boys.

"It was a great game, very back and forth, Toulon played great so props to them but we showed a lot of heart at the end there to come back and grasp it.

"The plan was to stick to our guns because we've got a great attacking game and our defence is improving every week.

"The defence again was the backbone of the performance, and that's what saw us out at the end.

"They've got a lot of class players, some world-class players so we knew they would have some purple patches in the game, and we saw that in the second half.

"But we came out of it in good stead and came away with the win."