We can't afford Toulouse - Leslie

John Leslie is honest enough to admit that he does not know how a third Powergen Cup final defeat in four years will affect a team with a Heineken Cup quarter-final visit to Toulouse looming on Saturday.

“I don’t know if it will work for or against us.” said New Zealand-born Leslie, the club’s co-captain with his former Scotland team-mate Budge Pountney.

The unrelenting pressure of one big match after another which comes with modern-day professional rugby is a burden Northampton must now take on to France this week.

And, after losing at Twickenham again, Leslie insisted: “Next week’s a new challenge and we have to get up and go for it.

“If we don’t believe in ourselves we’re not going to have a lot of chance. We’re hurting right now but come Monday we’ve have got to be focused.”

Coach Wayne Smith has just six days to rally his troops, four of whom returned from the euphoria of England’s Grand Slam triumph in Dublin and bounced straight into the thrill-a-minute 40-22 defeat by Gloucester at Twickenham.

It means four big games in four weeks for Matt Dawson, Ben Cohen and Steve Thompson, who started with England’s victory over Scotland at Twickenham.

And although the relentless demands of one big match after another appeared to be having an effect, Smith denied that the Twickenham final was one match too far for his stars.

“I don’t buy that, they wanted to win badly. There is a measure of fatigue and it’s just something you’ve got to handle. I don’t think it affected this game,” said the former All Blacks coach.

But the evidence was there as he watched Dawson throw out the aimless early pass which gifted Gloucester what he described as “the softest try you will ever see” for their opening score before handing the winners the interception which led to their final strike.

Cohen hardly ever got the chance to show his power and pace and Thompson was engaged in another mighty front row confrontation.

Tellingly, the most impressive of the England quartet was fly-half Paul Grayson, who had been limited to a brief cameo appearance as Jonny Wilkinson’s blood replacement at Lansdowne Road.

Smith was not interested in excuses. “These guys are grown-ups. It’s a tough league but I don’t know if that’s good or bad but it makes players resilient,” he said.

And the job of regrouping and motivating his side for one more huge effort as they start as outsiders against a strong Toulouse side began even before the disappointment of Twickenham had been absorbed.

“If you can’t get up for this month of rugby you never will,” said Smith.

“We have to hold our heads high, we’ve fought hard to get here, we’ve fought hard today and we’ll fight hard next week.”

Win or lose, he believes Northampton are on the right track. “We are in for the long haul – for as long it takes.

“We are trying to create something long-term at the club and if we keep making these finals the tide will turn,” he added.