Pearson puts 'turbulent' time behind him as he shows his class for Saints

The talented flanker was left out of work following London Irish's sad demise, but Saints moved quickly to beat other clubs to his signature.

Pearson was the Gallagher Premiership's breakthrough player of the year and the RPA’s young player of the season for 2022/23, having enjoyed an incredible campaign for Irish.

And he has already made a big impact at Saints, earning the man of the match award on Sunday as he scored two tries and set up a couple more in an 82-12 Premiership Rugby Cup success at home to Doncaster Knights.

"It was brilliant," Pearson said.

"We'd had some mixed results this pre-season so to go and really put a marker down at home, it's something we really wanted to do.

"Looking at the scoreline, we definitely did that, so it's all positive from our side.

"One thing we've been trying to implement more in the past couple of weeks is physicality in our own 22.

"We put in some good strong defensive sets to keep a pretty physical Doncaster side out so we're pleased with that.

"We did have a few runaway tries, some 50/50s, but Doncaster were a good outfit, physical up front.

"We were happy we put our stamp on the game with a couple of early tries and then took the game away from them 20, 25 minutes in.

"We're happy we had that continued pressure to get to that breaking point for Doncaster."

On his own situation, Pearson said: "I'm feeling very settled here.

"The brand of rugby is very similar to Irish, which has really helped me transition to here.

"The lads have been great.

"It was quite turbulent for a while, moving clubs, being involved in (England) camps, moving house and my whole life within the space of a week.

"I was all over the place and didn't quite have a base for a while so it's been brilliant to really settle and get involved in a few games.

"I'm really happy."

Pearson was delighted to register his first tries in Saints colours at the weekend.

And he said: "I'm very pleased with that.

"If I'm honest, I was a little bit rusty the week before so I feel like I didn't show what I can do.

"Against Doncaster, to get 50, 60 minutes and a couple of tries, I'm over the moon."