I shook my copy of the press release at Jim and said thank you. He smiled back and suggested that it was Bruce I should thank, as soon as he finished with BBC Look East. So I did.

His new contract will take Bruce's relationship with Saints to seven seasons. If we have not necessarily built a team around him, he has been our firm anchor point. Even in our darkest of hours, he has been steadfast - our rock.

Buoyed by this bonhomie we discussed the season to date. A 100% record, top points, top tries, fewest points and tries conceded (and a favourable comparison with Harlequins at the same stage) - does life get any better?

Maybe, if you look at it like that, it doesn't but we can! The focus of the team has always been to win the league. In setting about that there have been other goals along the way. Most of them have been achieved. Apart from winning it has been about improving - individually and as a team. The statistics I recounted to him had not come about by happenstance. Coaches and players put a lot of hard work into developing the way they want to play. That translates into hours on the practice pitches getting the defensive system grooved into being second nature or ball after ball sailing through the uprights and over the bar.

As the season moves into its final third, there more targets coming into the sights. A glib desire to win every game is now becoming close enough to be put up as the league and cup double. Securing the league title (even if it can be done against Exeter) will yield to the target of a 100% record. They work hard and they want to keep setting goals and achieving the standards they need to attain them.

You just get the feeling that complacency has been banished from the team room. There is always more to do than just rest on laurels.

As we turned our discussion to the matter of our defence, what has been obvious was confirmed. There has been some fundamental re-working of the way we defend and a great deal of time and effort put into getting it working well. I suggested that the big question was, does it look good at the moment because we are playing at a level down? The pace here is slightly slower and the physicality of the runners not so telling. Bruce is convinced that they have a method and, by and large, the personnel to keep a solid line and exert pressure at whatever level we play.

Signing on again is good news for Bruce's family. He has a son in the first year at the Boys' School and he is settling in nicely. Bruce did not take the bait when I asked how he would feel when Reihana, Jr was selected to play for England. He smiled and said that there was a long way to go just yet. Of course, there is another big decision to make before then - which club? Over the road or down the hill? Tricky.

Bruce was not surprised to see so many team-mates from the successful Waikato side of his last year in New Zealand now playing over here in the UK. They are all good players who had done much in their home country. Perhaps now is the time to seek out new challenges. He had played with some of these guys since school days and come up through club rugby to provincial sides and the Chiefs. His advice had been sought and in turn he suggested that black, green and gold was a pretty good set of colours in which to be seen. Unfortunately this was to no avail. Anybody in particular? As though by thought transference, he said, "Marty Holah."

In celebrating his new contract with a cup of tea and a biscuit, Bruce would definitely be looking for the all-butter highland shortbread. Now that is a proper biscuit.

arw

31.01.2008