For 30 minutes on Sunday I feared the worst, Saints were totally off the pace and it was looking like they had learned nothing from their embarrassing defeat at London Irish a week earlier.
Glasgow were half a yard quicker to the breakdown, were more than matching Saints at the set-piece and generally looked hungrier than Northampton who were shell-shocked after the two early Glasgow scores.
Former Saints winger Sean Lamont was proving to be a huge thorn in the side of his former club. He is a handful at the best of times, but seems to always want to prove a point when he is playing against his former club.
What was noticeable on Sunday was the lack of noise from the Saints fans in the first half. I don’t think it helps the players when the atmosphere drops at the Gardens.
I know the players need to give the crowd something to cheer about, but sometimes they need the crowd to lift them, and that wasn’t happening on Sunday.
Thankfully though, two brothers from Samoa managed to wake the up the crowd and their team-mates. George and Ken Pisi were really the catalysts that sparked the Saints into life.
Ken is starting to make as big an impact as his brother did a year ago.
He is not the out-and-out quickest winger around, but he has great footwork and has the habit, like his brother, of making something happen every time he gets his hands on the ball.
Worryingly for Saints, Stephen Myler had a real off day. I think there is a direct correlation in his performance and missed kicks at goal.
If he is off target with his early attempts it tends to affect his all-round game.
It was a positive move that Saints did not substitute him and that he was able to contribute to the bonus-point try with some sharp hands for Vasily Artemyev’s score.
Saints will need his control over the coming weeks and every player can have an off day. Look at Nick Evans for Quins a few weeks ago against Saracens, he had an off day, but they didn’t throw the baby out with the bath water and drop him straight away.
Myler has played well this season so far, and it would be a mistake to drop him after one indifferent performance.
The other major concern was the injury to James Wilson. I am not entirely convinced he was fit to start, but they were under pressure to play him. He didn’t appear to be the player we have seen over the last few weeks and looked like he was still carrying his injury.
There is a good chance that he will be unlikely to start against Castres this weekend which will be a blow, and after the Artemyev experiment at Irish I would be tempted to start with Tom May in his place.
It is to the credit of the Saints that they fought back from being two scores down. It was a good display of their strength of character, but they will not want to concede such easy leads to the likes of Ulster in the two back-to-back games against them coming up.
Ulster were impressive in their bonus point win over Castres on Friday night and are the number one contenders for qualification from the pool. It is a fairly obvious statement, but the qualification from the pool will all hinge on those two games in December.
I really do think some of the scheduling of European games needs to be looked at.
It is grossly unfair to expect teams to play on a Sunday then follow that up with a Friday night game, you need six or seven days to get over games of this magnitude, and Northampton are already on the back foot going into Friday night’s clash without having stepped on the pitch.
Castres will have had nearly 48 hours extra rest and preparation time.
The good news is that from a tactical point of view Saints know Castres very well from the last couple of seasons. They they ought to know what it will take to come away from Friday night with a win.
Castres are a very physical side up front, and Saints have not been at their best in the set-piece and tight play over the past couple of weeks and the big men up front will need to put in a big shift to lay the platform the likes of the Pisi brothers to weave their magic.
If Saints start well I can see Castres rolling over, as we know from their past record once they feel qualification is slipping from their grasp they tend to shift their focus back to their domestic competition.
ENGLISH CLUBS OFF TO A GOOD START
It is far too early to say whether this season is going to be a more successful one for the Premiership clubs, but on the evidence of last weekend is was a really positive start.
Most impressive was the win for Sale over a really talented Cardiff outfit.
You have to wonder what is happening with the Welshmen, as they have bags of talent in their squad and that would have been a huge body blow for them to lose that game after squandering the lead.
It looks like former Sale boss and England coach John Mitchell will be back at the Sharks soon as forwards coach, I think that will be a great move for them and that win will have given their confidence a huge boost.
It will also have been a big boost for them that big summer signing Danny Cipriani finally repaid some of the faith shown in his ability. He is a player that I have always enjoyed watching, if only he could ensure that all his talking and antics are kept on the pitch.
Harlequins and Saracens were mightily impressive in their wins against Biarritz and Edinburgh respectively.
Sarries showed again that when they play with the shackles off they are a much better team, one hopes that their attitude in Europe will rub off on their Premiership performances.
Tigers will be disappointed with their display in Toulouse, they ought to have at least come away with a losing bonus point but some tactically poor calls, especially from Ben Youngs, cost them what could be a critical point come the end of the pool stages.
In conditions like that away from home against one the big powerhouses of Europe you need to take all the points on offer.
When criticising Youngs people would do well to remember that he is still in his early years of development.
I would bet that faced with a similar situation again he would not make the same error.
Tigers fans will be hoping that moment will not cost them.
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