Skipper Pat Sanderson praised the Warriors players and coaches for turning the season around after a disastrous start.
“All season we’ve been under pressure and at the bottom of the league,” he said.
“I doubt there’s another set of guys in the division who could have handled that sort of pressure for as long as we did.
“It took all the 22 games but mission accomplished. It’s not just about this last week, it’s been three months.
“We were way out of it, no-one gave us a chance – it takes huge character, it’s a good deal harder at the bottom than at the top.
“We deliberately didn’t want to know what was going on in Northampton’s game – we accepted they had won and just concentrated on winning ourselves.”