And just like that - we're back!

Saturday saw the new Premiership champions back on home turf for a pre-season “friendly” against an old foe –Leinster.

And Leinster came locked and loaded with a strong side to test Saints young guns who were without their England Internationals.

The new crest was on show everywhere in the spruced up Cinch Stadium at Franklins Gardens (what a mouthful of a title) and the PA seemed to be working better in most areas of the ground.

The Halos were primed a ready to help the 9,000 who turned up on a hot and sunny afternoon to welcome the boys back.

As with most pre-season friendlies on the terraces it was more about the social side and catching up with old friends than admiring the rugby.

And on the pitch, as expected, it was patchy with Leinster putting in a much more polished and strong performance. Saints were not only without English internationals but also a fair few injured players including rising stars George Hendy and Tom Lockett.

James Ramm led the team out and also led the team on the score sheet when he crossed for an early try. It was promising start that indicated Saints style of play was high tempo excitement. But Leinster had other ideas and the strength of their mauling play gained them two tries in short succession.

A clearance kick charge down and a loose ball gave them their third. Pressure on the Saints tryline was rewarded with a yellow card for Elliot Millar Mills – who went full-on Dastardly and Muttley mutterings as he left the pitch – and the almost inevitable penalty try shortly after.

Saints then put pressure on the Leinster defence but despite penalty after penalty being awarded to the home side they gained no advantage and trotted into the dressing rooms with a 7-26 deficit.

Saints struck back quickly in the second half with a try from replacement hooker Robbie Smith following a maul. Savala converted but Leinster were soon back on the scoreboard with another short range try.

Then a ray of sunshine when new boy Josh Kemeny showed he fitted into the Saints way with  a brilliant break which took him from halfway into the Leinster 22 and put Will Glister over for a lovely try.

Leinster then scored a couple more tries before a Saints maul gave Sam Graham a scoring chance that he was not going to ignore to bring Saints score to 26.

Leinster then scored their eighth try and despite Saints mounting another wave of attack – which ironically saw Leinster given a totally pointless yellow card – they were unable to capitalise and the final whistle brought it all to an end 26-54.

Leinster are further down their pre-season journey and had a much stronger side out than Saints so not too much should be read into the scoreline. What was promising, however, was the lock pairing of Chunya Munga and new signing Callum Hunter-Hill, the exuberance of the youngsters who came on in the last quarter. The average age of the team who finished looked to be ridiculously young – exciting times ahead for Saints, I feel.

Friday sees the second pre-season friendly against Bedford who put up a good fight against Saracens on Friday evening. It is also the Mobbs Memorial Match –an historic fixture.

Photographs are provided by Claire Jones at RedHat Photography and if you would like to hear or see the Claire and Lis, plus guests, discussing all things Saintly hop over to Ladies Wot Pod on Youtube or Spotify.