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Following the 25-12 defeat to the Saints at Welford Road, Director of rugby Dean Richards was in reflective mood:
He said: 'I am immensely proud of our record and it's never nice to lose but fair play to Northampton, they took their chances.
'We didn't play particularly well. Had we won at London Irish last week things would have been different. We didn't pick ourselves up in the way we expected.
'We have lost a game, that is all, and we will see what happens at the end of the season,' he said.
'We have got to get back into winning ways. Two losses, one away and one at home, is unusual for us.'
Northampton coach Wayne Smith said: 'It was a good win but we don't want to be getting our feet off the ground - we haven't done anything yet. We are still nowhere near it.
'We will have 24 hours to enjoy, but it in terms of progress we are on the road though there is a hell of a long way to go.'
And the Saints will move out of the frying pan and into the fire as they prepare to take on Cardiff this weekend. The Blue and Blacks will be in jubilant mood following their superb 26-22 win over Edinburgh Rugby in the Celtic League quarter-final.
The victory means Cardiff are through to the final four of the Celtic League and they will be hoping to carry that form into the Heineken Cup competition.
Cardiff coach David Young made a dramatic comeback during his side's win in Scotland and the veteran prop even received a yellow card during the second-half.
He said: "The boys showed tremendous team spirit. It was a great win and, coming off the field, Edinburgh were full of praise for us, which was good. A lot of teams would have folded at half-time and it could have ended up a cricket score.
"I think this win was right up there with our best wins of recent years in Europe. Traditionally we are not good travellers. We've had some excellent wins at the Arms Park, but away from home great wins have been few and far between and this one has to be up there with the best of them."
Cardiff defeated an Edinburgh side who now face a daunting home clash against Toulouse. And following his side's defeat club captain Todd Blackadder was in philosophical mood.
He said: "We were in the game at half-time and knew what we had to do after that. But we made a lot of mistakes and Cardiff punished us for them.
"Well done to them - they are a team that could have given up but never did so they deserved their win at the end."
Another Welsh side who were victorious at the weekend were Llanelli, who took on Ebbw Vale in a friendly.
And the Scarlets came out on top beating the Steelmen 53-13 ahead of their Heineken Cup match with Sale Sharks on Friday night.
Coach Gareth Jenkins said: "We had competition and are grateful to Vale for hosting a friendly, but Sale must have a big advantage.
"They had a precious and vibrant clash with Bath on Friday night whereas we have had totally inadequate preparation, given the unbalanced structure of the Welsh Premier League season."
Llanelli will have to be wary of Steve Hanley who was in awesome form at the weekend. And his coach Jim Mallinder was full of praise for the former England back.
"Steve has always been a good finisher,' said Mallinder of the Zurich Premiership's most prolific try-scorer so far this season.
'He was a top winger last season when he scored plenty and we're delighted with the progress he's made since then. He took both of his tries really well.
'With Mark Cueto on the other wing, we have a lot of finishing power out wide, but ultimately all the hard work is done by the rest of the team who set up the tries.'
In the all Ireland quarter-final clash Munster defeated Connacht by 33 points to 3. Munster will now play Ulster in the semi-final but before then it's back to European action for last year's finalists.
Coach Alan Gaffney had this to say after the game:
'That really was a game of two halves for us,' Gaffney said. 'It showed that we only had three training sessions in the last month, we looked pretty rusty.
'But when Paul O'Connell was sin-binned just before half-time I thought the real Munster stood up and really showed their mettle, and in the end I felt the 30-point differential was the right result. It really bodes well for next week and Viadana in the Heineken Cup.
"I'm not denigrating Connacht at all, they're a difficult side, but they haven't got the firepower we have and I just felt that the way the game developed it was always going to get better for us.
'The pack across the board was very, very strong and I was impressed by our front row.'
