approach the next nine days between now and the Sara-cens clash - either we spend all our time worrying about the game or we use it to prepare in a positive way.

I think having almost two weeks between our last two games is actually a huge advantage for us because it means we can work on all the things we need to work on and go into the final game of the season as fresh as possible.

There is certainly plenty to work on after the disappointment of Sunday. We must control possession a lot better against Saracens than we did at Irish if we are to win the game.

When you spend as long defending as we did at the Madejski it makes it very difficult. When we did have the ball, I thought we looked pretty dangerous but you can't win a game without the ball.

Irish made life very difficult for us at the line-out and it is clear we missed Craig Gillies in that area. Sometimes you don't realise somebody's true worth until they are not there and that was very much the case with Craig on Sunday.

It's a shame because the guys who came in are good enough and I felt for them but Craig is a very important player for us and it will be a boost to have him back for the Saracens game.

We all knew the result of the Northampton game when we took the field. Everybody prepares for games in different ways and some of the guys watched the TV and others preferred not to but we were all aware of what happened at Adams Park.

It was a difficult game in difficult conditions and we only just came short. It looked like Dale Rasmussen was going to score in the corner in the second-half when we were leading and, had we got a try then we might have pulled away from them.

We were slightly unlucky but there are a few things we need to put right and it is up to us to do that for the last game of the season.

After Sunday's game, we were all obviously disappointed and the guys were given a bit of time to reflect but, as I have been saying for some time now, we are not in a position where we can afford to dwell on things. Our focus immediately turned to Sara-cens and that is all we will be thinking about now.

I told the lads they will probably never feel more alive than running out in front of our own fans on the last day of the season. We won't be taking any notice of what is going on at Franklin's Gardens and we will all be 100 per cent focussed on our own task.

For us, it will all be about winning. We are up against good opposition but it's something we should all be excited about rather than worried.