Saints were in awesome form as they swept aside a second-string Toulon outfit 56-3 on Thursday night, and although Mallinder admitted he had enjoyed the experience and wanted his players to revel in it, he will also be keeping his feet on the ground.

Toulon were so poor in is difficult to gauge how good Saints were at the Stade Mayol, and asked whether it was a case of his team being great, or the opposition poor, Mallinder admitted: "I don't think you can ever know.

"All we can do as a team is prepare properly and then go out there and execute tour plan which is what we did.

"But we definitely won't be getting carried away with it, because we have another very difficult game next Saturday against Montpellier."

The Saints players were given a standing ovation when they left the pitch on Thursday night, and not just from the 600 travelling fans.

The French supporters left in the stadium also rose to their feet, and Mallinder said: "That is brilliant for the players and I think the they deserved it.

"We didn't do anything flash, we just went out and played some good rugby."