These are heady days for Saints.

Winning has become so routine that Saturday's triumph barely merited a murmer in the bars afterwards.

Saints are the only club in the Guinness Premiership still in with a chance of the treble, with a place in the last eight of the Heineken Cup now followed by a semi-final in the LV= Cup after this win.

This was another display of how strong Saints' squad is these days. Saints won this game at the breakdown with a trio of back-rowers who were regular starters last season.

Yet this was only Mark Easter's seventh appearance of the season thanks to Phil Dowson's arrival and Neil Best had lost his place to Courtney
Lawes until his England call-up.

Led by the ultimate dog of war Roger Wilson, the trio and the rest of Saints were ferocious at the breakdown, winning turnovers and slowing Leicester up continually.

It was a good job as well because Leicester dominated large parts of the game with Saints' defence to the fore.

The Tigers were still banging into green, black and gold shirts going into the last quarter, but by then, it was clear they weren't going to get through.

And yet in the first half, there were an alarming amount of tackles missed by Saints.

They scrambled back to cover each time, but that plus poor kicking and a badly malfunctioning lineout meant the home side did not build on their perfect start.

Alan Dickens charged down the box-kick from the kick-off to keep Leicester hemmed in their 22 and then from a lineout Paul Diggin struck with his second try in two games.

The try brought up 200 points for Saints and showed just what a
lethal finisher Diggin is.

Brett Sharman's perfect long throw had set-up the try, but after that he was inconsistent at best and contributed to Saints being stuck in
their half.

Dickens' poor kicking didn't help either, but he more than made amends with his first try for the club.

Chris Ashton made the break and offloaded to Chris Mayor who fed Wilson before the Ulsterman sent Dickens scrambling down the right touchline for a lovely try.

At 14-3 Saints were seemingly in control but they conceded a soft try.

Stephen Myler looked to have delivered a decent up-and-under that Lucas Amorosino took just outside his 22.

No Saint could lay a finger on him for 40m and when they did he passed to the supporting Billy Twelvetrees to score.

At 14-8 Tigers should have had a second try when Alesana Tuilagi knocked on and Saints replied with Myler at his metronome to add two penalties after the break.

Leicester had the lion's share of possession and territory. But their inspiration slowly ran dry as their attacks faltered on the rock-like Saints defence. Not even battering ram Tuilagi could get through.

And Barry Everitt knocked over a penalty to end the game.