Dingwall: We owe Saints supporters big performance against Clermont

Despite a difficult couple of weeks, Northampton Saints will not be weighed down by the occasion against Clermont Auvergne, according to centre Fraser Dingwall.

Dingwall will once again be captaining the men in Black, Green and Gold in the absence of injured skipper George Furbank for the visit of Les Jaunards to cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens.

At stake is a place in the quarter-finals of the Investec Champions Cup, with Saints being the only Gallagher Premiership club to have a home tie in the last 16 of European rugby’s premier club competition.

Those stakes have been raised by recent defeats against Leicester Tigers and Sale Sharks, damaging the prospects of them having the chance to defend their Premiership title in this season’s play-offs.

Where Saints can draw inspiration from is their run to the semi-finals of last year’s Champions Cup, which included a memorable win over Munster at the Gardens at the same stage in which they are competing tonight.

Dingwall, however, insists the build-up has been business as usual, saying: “We haven't really touched on the fact that it’s a huge game all that much because everyone’s aware that a European knock-out is always big.

“We haven’t actually tried to push that hard [on how big the game is], it’s more around how excited we can be for the opportunity we’ve got.

“We worked really hard in the group stages to give ourselves the opportunity to have a last-16 tie at home so to then play Clermont, who we haven’t played for a number of years, and it will be the first time a lot of the lads have played against those guys, just sets itself up to be a really cool, exciting prospect.

“That hopefully drives a lot of the mental side of it to get a good performance out there.”

Tonight represents the second time this season a side from the French Top 14 has visited the Gardens, with Castres seen off 38-8 in the first match of Saints’ European campaign back in December.

Clermont are fighting on two fronts, with them currently lying sixth in their league, which is the last position in which a team can qualify for the Top 14’s end-of-season play-offs.

When asked what it’s like to welcome French opposition, Dingwall said: “There’s the unknown part because you haven’t played against a lot of the players, and then it tends to be two contrasting styles, just because of the way the leagues operate.

“We’re expecting them to be very physical and then move the ball to their very talented backs.

“Our game probably operates a lot more around linking the whole thing together as a team so it can be quite contrasting.

Tonight’s match is the 10th occasion in which Saints have faced Clermont Auvergne, and they would dearly love to add to the solitary win they have recorded over them, in January 2018.

Dingwall played them twice the following year in the European Challenge Cup, including a breathless quarter-final that saw Clermont run out 61-38 winners at the atmospheric Stade Marcel-Michelin.

“I’ve played them out there at their stadium, which was very fun,” Dingwall said.

“It was a very high-scoring game from memory, but they had a lot of talent within their backs and back row at the time, much like they do now.

“I’ve got some cool memories and I know their stadium is a great place to play – there’s always the band playing, it’s right on top of you and it was a very high-scoring game when I played there.”

Dingwall is also aware Saints have to reverse an unusual patch of poor home form in which Ealing Trailfinders knocked them out of the Premiership Rugby Cup and Leicester defeated them on their own patch in an East Midlands derby everyone would rather forget.

“Unfortunately, the past two games here haven’t been great and even more so after the Leicester game, we as a squad probably feel like we owe the supporters one at our home ground so they can see a bit more of a performance,” Dingwall said.

“I’m sure they'll get right behind us, as they always do, once we start putting a performance out there that actually looks a bit more like us.”