Opposition view: Leicester Tigers boss Borthwick gives credit to Saints

The black, green and gold bagged a 23-18 Gallagher Premiership win at the home of their local rivals.

Saints were helped by two Tigers yellow cards as Matt Scott and Harry Wells were both sin-binned.

But Leicester fought on and looked like they may snatch the win after coming back from 23-10 down, only to be denied by an immense rearguard action.

"We had plenty of opportunities, we had plenty of time spent in the opposition 22, and we turned the ball over eight times in the opposition 22, unfortunately," Borthwick said.

"You've got to credit the opposition's defence, with how resolute they were, and defended their goal line really well, we need to take those opportunities.

"The creation of the number of opportunities that we had was good. It tells me that there's a lot of good stuff, but not enough to win the game."

On his side's yellow cards, Borthwick said: "Any yellow card is costly, particularly that one with the ball hitting the post with a yellow card.

"Then we're down the touchline then it's seven points, we concede a try, which was certainly significant to the end of the day, which is disappointing.

"Those are the things, we need to keep 15 players on the pitch, that's very clear."

Nemani Nadolo was a real threat for Tigers after coming into the game early on in place of centre Dan Kelly.

Nadolo returned after a 10-game injury absence and scored twice on the day.

And Borthwick said: "I think his application's been outstanding, the professionalism he's shown has been brilliant, and I was really pleased for him to get back on the field.

"We expected it to be 20 or 30 minutes and it ended up being 60 after Dan Kelly takes the knock on the head.

"I thought he was terrific in terms of his first game back.

"I think he's a point of difference to any team you play, it's brilliant to have him back, and to get across the try line on his first game back is excellent."