Harlequins director of rugby Conor O'Shea knows his players are in the Premiership final to win it - because they would kill him if he thought otherwise.

A later Joe Marler try secured Quins their place in the Twickenham showpiece on May 26 and consigned Northampton Saints to a third successive play-off semi-final defeat on Saturday.

O'Shea's men have topped the table all season and will face in-form Leicester Tigers in the climax to the campaign.

And the Stoop chief is confident his men will defy the odds – in his mind – to land their second piece of silverware in as many season's.

"Obviously we are very happy to make the final, but if my players thought I was just happy to do that they'd kill me," he said.

"They want to win this thing now.

"But we face an unbelievably hard team in Leicester and they will undoubtedly be favourites for the game.

"They have been in eight finals in a row and have been on a very strong run."

Harlequins had seem dead and buried when Lee Dickson rounded off a flowing move to give Saints a 23-18 advantage in the closing stages.

But skipper Chris Robshaw's men showed the spirit that brought them wins at Saracens and Toulouse this season to get Marler over the line for the 25-23 win, which also featured 20 points from Nick Evans’ boot.

And O'Shea warned Tigers his men would provide an even sterner test next week.

“Individuals were trying to do everything themselves rather than execute as a team and it is sometimes hard to get out of that mindset in games like that,” he added.

“We needed something to sting ourselves into action and the last 10 minutes of rugby was actually what we are capable of.

“I felt for Northampton, but that is semi-final rugby.

"We know the areas we need to work on and we know we can play a better."

Quins jetted off to Abu Dhabi this week to tighten up their gameplan and O'Shea was pleased to reveal he would have a full strength squad to choose from on their return.

“It is an unbelievable position to be in at this stage of the season and a testament to our strength and conditioning team and medical staff,” he added.

“Apart from the long-term casualties – like Chris Brooker, Charlie Matthews and Tim fairbrother – we're in good shape.”