Opposition view: 'A little bit of frustration' for Bordeaux after Saints bag bonus point

But McNamara felt there were plenty of positives for his team to take from their 50-28 Investec Champions Cup pool-stage success against the black, green and gold.

Bordeaux, who beat Saints 28-20 in last season's final, won the rematch after notching a total of eight tries.

It ensured they will be in control of the destiny of Pool 4 ahead of their trip to second-placed Bristol Bears on Sunday (kick-off 1pm).

Saints are now third in the standings, three points behind Bristol and four adrift of Bordeaux.

Phil Dowson's men have now qualified for the round of 16 ahead of their home clash with Scarlets on Sunday, but they can't finish top of the pool after their defeat in Bordeaux.

"There's lots of positives but probably a little bit of frustration at the end to give up that bonus to them, which, who knows, might become costly as the competition goes on," McNamara said after the win against Saints.

"But I think there were a huge amount of positives. We were very clinical with the opportunities that we had.

"There was probably a little bit of frustration in the first half with those scrums because we probably don't get that many opportunities to get first-phase strikes and find different ways of not being successful with them.

"But overall we've got to be very pleased - and our destiny is in our own hands, but it's a massive challenge next week because we saw what Bristol did in Pretoria (beating Vodacom Bulls 61-49 last Saturday). It was an absolutely remarkable performance to be honest about it."

Cameron Woki and Salesi Rayasi both bagged hat-tricks for Bordeaux, but Danilo Fischetti's late try at least provided the solace of a try bonus point for Saints.

"There's two sides of it," McNamara said, when asked what pleased him most about Bordeaux's performance. "I think physically we were very much in the ascendancy at times with the performance of the forwards. It's not often you have that kind of scrum dominance, and physically that takes its toll.

"I thought we were clinical with the opportunities.

"A couple of the tries were a little bit bizarre. Cameron Woki's two in the second half - I'm not sure you would see that very often, but credit to him because he finished them well.

"We spoke about Jean-Luc (du Preez) and Salesi Rayasi before the game and I'm particularly pleased for Salesi because he was excellent throughout and at times he covered the backfield well - it wasn't just about scoring the tries. Overall, in the aerial contest he was good too.

"Overall, physically we were very much there and clinical when we got our opportunities."

Bordeaux are now preparing for another mouthwatering match-up with an English side as they travel to Ashton Gate to take on the Bears on Sunday.

"They (Bristol) kick very little - that's the first and foremost," said McNamara.

"There's a lot of talk about kicking in the game at the moment but they don't kick that much, and they're a constant test.

"You've got to defend particularly well, and I think that's going to be our challenge, like it was here.

"Yes, we're probably a bit disappointed to concede that try at the end, but we defended well for large parts of the game.

"You've got to recognise Northampton had a big setback late in the week, losing Fin Smith and James Ramm (to injury), and I've no doubt that affected their preparation.

"For us, Bristol are a team that attack incredibly well, we've got to work hard to shut them down and hopefully we can impose ourselves on them as well."