Saints will 'expect the unexpected' as Harlequins come to town

Quins come to cinch Stadium at Franklin's Gardens on the back of a narrow defeat at Sale Sharks and a bonus-point home win against Newcastle Falcons.

Saints have also won one and lost one in the Gallagher Premiership so far, suffering a defeat at Bath before seeing off Exeter Chiefs last Saturday.

And looking ahead to this week's clash, hooker Langdon said: "I'm looking forward to it. It will be a good game to watch.

"When you play against Quins, you've got to expect the unexpected in terms of the way they attack.

"Radders (Saints defence coach Lee Radford) has shown us lots of clips this week of how we're going to defend.

"I know Quins often score quite a few points and hopefully we'll be able to stop them doing that this weekend.

"It will be a tough game and we talk a lot about having no switch-offs, even when the ball's out of play.

"It will be a tough game on the lungs but hopefully we can get control of the game and add to that tally of wins we've had at home."

Saints bounced back well from the defeat at Bath as they stood tall against a physical Exeter Chiefs side last Saturday.

And Langdon said: "It's been good to get back into competitive rugby.

"There were some pleasing bits from the Bath game and it was probably quite similar to our first game last year, against Sale. Physically we were there, probably not as clinical as we'd like to be.

"We physically turned up against Exeter, were more clinical and we got the result, which was pleasing.

"Hopefully we can just build on that performance. It was better than the Bath one.

"It was far from an 80-minute performance, which is where we want to be, but we've got to keep building.

"We've obviously got some new boys who have come in and it takes a while to get to grips with the way we do things here at Saints.

"But if you look at last season, we're in a better place now than after two games last year so it's looking promising.

"We just need to keep getting better week on week and keep striving for that 80-minute performance."

Saints produced some lengthy periods of impressive defence against Exeter.

"It was pleasing to see we had some really good defensive shifts, lots of phases and keeping them out," Langdon said.

"The one at the end of the game, we kept them out and those sort of moments served us well last year and will do again this year if we keep seeing them.

"We're always looking to improve and get after stuff to make our defence more effective than it has been."

Now Saints look forward to playing again at the Gardens, where they have won 10 successive league matches.

"We play at home and there's just that feeling of 'we're going to get the result'," Langdon said. "We stick in it until the end.

"We do love playing at home and all the boys get excited about it, regardless of when it is: Friday night, Saturday, Sunday.

"We're always confident we can get the result."