The Saints went out of the Singha Sevens at the Plate semi-final stage on Sunday having suffered two defeats in Coventry.
With the bulk of last week's squad unavailable to due to ongoing pre-season preparations in France, the Saints fielded a young squad at Wasps' Ricoh Arena.
Their first match of the afternoon pitted them against Exeter Chiefs, and three early tries from the Devon club saw the Saints trail 17-0 after three minutes with Sam Simmonds, Nick Mason and the hugely experienced Matt Jess all getting on the scoreboard.
Saints responded well, however, stringing together some good phases before James Fish made a break midway into the 22, with Tom Emery in support at pace to cross under the posts and close the gap to ten points. But the first half came to an end with Jess scoring his second of the match to give the Chiefs a 24-7 lead.
The Chiefs were quick out of the blocks in the second half too, with Jess completing his hat-trick to extend their lead and make the score 31-7, before Ted Landry scored his first of the afternoon.
Tom Emery was then almost over in the corner before Jasper Dix crossed to make the final score 38-12 and put the Saints into the Plate semi final.
That match saw the Saints take on Cardiff and the Welsh side were the first to get on the scoreboard with Declan Williams crossing for the opening try of the match. Saints closed the deficit to two points with a try on the left wing from Benjamin Marfo, but Ethan Davies extended the Blues’ lead with a try by the posts before James Beale added a third on the stroke of half time for a 19-5 advantage.
With the second half underway Cardiff were the first to cross the line. Captain Adam Thomas increasing their lead to 26-5 before Johnny Lewis dotted down in the corner. The conversion made the score 33-5.
Joe Tomlinson’s converted score gave the Blues a 35-point lead with just under a minute to play before Charlie Kingham's extra time try for the Saints made the final score 40-10.
"We had a really young squad out there today with some boys from Loughborough and some coming in from England Sevens, and the youngsters," said Saints captain George Furbank after their two matches. "It was always going to be tough, especially against the Exeter side who had a good round last week."
