Northampton determined to make cinch Stadium at Franklin's Gardens a fortress - George Furbank

Northampton Saints fullback George Furbank insisted on the need to make the cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens a fortress in the ongoing Gallagher Premiership campaign.

The Saints registered their first win of the season at Kingston Park last weekend when they edged out Newcastle Falcons 16-14 in the third round as they moved to the seventh place in the table.

They now face the top two teams in the table Bath and Exeter Chiefs at home on 4th and 12th November respectively and Furbank wants to capitalise on the advantage to gain momentum.

“Bath are a good side this year and they’re looking really promising,” said Furbank to the club's official website.

“They had a narrow loss against Leicester, so they will definitely want to bounce back.

“We have got two home games in a row now, and we always speak about how we want to make cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens a fortress again, like we did last season, and so we have got to put our foot down in that area.”

The last weekend saw Curtis Langdon scoring a try while Fin Smith kicked three penalties and a conversion to take Northampton's tally to 16 points. In response Iwan Stephens touched down in the 75th minute for Newcastle but Brett Connon's decisive conversion drifted wide as Northampton edged away with a two point victory.

“These wins are almost more rewarding than others,” he said. “We saw the forecast and knew it was probably going to be a bit of a gritty game.

“It’s incredibly tough when it’s like that to throw the ball around and play the way we want to play normally, but we adapted incredibly well.

“We spoke about doing the small things really well, and sticking in the fight, and I thought we did that for 80 minutes.”