Saints ace Wilson: We’re doing it for our Six Nations stars

And the prolific Kiwi utility back, who has scored four tries in his past four games, says it will be ‘awesome’ when the squad is back to full strength after the Six Nations.

Saints have shown no signs of losing their momentum since Dylan Hartley, Courtney Lawes, Tom Wood, Luther Burrell, Lee Dickson and George North headed off on international duty.

Instead, they have maintained their momentum, racking up an 11th successive win in all competitions at Newcastle on Sunday.

Wilson grabbed a brace in that 22-16 success at Kingston Park and says he and his team-mates are concious of doing a good job while so many others are away.

“A win’s a win, especially away from home,” he said. “We’ve got to keep that rolling, especially with the boys away on international duty.

“We’ve got to keep it up for those fellas. They’re working hard away, we’re working hard here.

“Everyone’s putting pressure on positions, the whole squad, and when the boys do come back it’s going to be awesome.”

Wilson’s double and a tidy try from Tom Stephenson saw Saints shoot into a 19-6 half-time lead at Newcastle.

They were made to work hard by their hosts after the break, but still prevailed on a pitch which cut up badly.

“It was up and down,” said Wilson. “It was tough because conditions weren’t the best out there, but we’ll take the win.

“The first half was good, we played really well, a high tempo sort of game, but we just lost that in the second half.

“Full credit to Newcastle, they gave it to us.

“We just lost our flow a little bit. We were forcing our passes a bit much.

“With that fourth try within grasp, we were pushing the passes a little bit rather than holding it.

“It was disappointing not to pick up the bonus point, but we’ll take the four points.”