McGahan looking for four points as Saintsmarch in
They lead the Saints by two points in Pool One with 20 points – the weekend results suggesting that at worst they will wind up one of the two best runners-up
However, that is the last thing on the mind of coach Tony McGahan who is setting his sights on a home win and the four points that would guarantee a quarter-final in front of the Red Army.
“We have high ambition and high hopes for this year so the only thing that has crossed our minds is a performance,” he said last night. “Even if Northampton lost or got only four points today, what we wanted to achieve on Friday night would be the same and that’s four points.
“A home quarter-final would be the by-product of that. We certainly recognise that, (a) we’ll be playing high quality opposition; (b) protecting a very strong home record; (c) that the end result is a home quarter-final and (d) hoping to repay the supporters for all the travel they have put in, certainly in the last 24 months, and give them something to compensate for all the travel and expense. That would be a very small thing to do for them.
“It’s another one of those classic round six ties between Munster and the in-form English Premiership team, a team playing well domestically and also in the Heineken Cup. They come here in a rich vein of form, both from a defensive and attacking perceptive and are now adding a good set piece so they’re going to be a very tough opponent.
“I’ve been associated with a few of these games, Leicester, Sale, Wasps, and every time, it seems to be an English side coming in great form and Northampton will be no different. They’ve been building steadily over the last three years, they’re playing for each other and have a lot of belief in themselves.”
McGahan confirmed that Marcus Horan is very much back in the mix having played a full 80 minutes in an AIB League game for Shannon on Saturday.
“The only thing that was holding Marcus from our perspective was game time,” he said. “I talked to him today. He’s feeling good, he’s a bit sore as you can imagine after playing his first game for 11 weeks as a prop, he feels like he’s been in a car crash, but he’ll be in the running for selection this week.”
McGahan’s Northampton counterpart, Jim Mallender, pointed out that his side is on a good run although he did stress: “We watched Munster yesterday and they were very impressive. What you can’t do going there is be intimidated, you’ve got to stand head-to-head, toe-to-toe, with them and hopefully we will do that.”
Dylan Hartley, the Saints captain, maintained his side had no fears about coming to Thomond Park.
“We are definitely capable of going there and winning,” he declared after his side’s last minute bonus try defeat of Perpignan. “We went to Perpignan early in the year and got a bit of a lesson and learned a few things from that. It is pretty much our quarter-final with everything on the line.”
Tony McGahan was reasonably happy with his team’s performance in Treviso on Saturday although not surprisingly, he had definite reservations about a lack lustre second half.
“Other sides have come to Treviso and struggled,” he pointed out. “There was good pace and good intensity in the first half, we tried to play some rugby but the second half for a good 30 minutes was very slow. We lacked field position and ability to get out of our own half. The players were fresh, we had a good training week and we tried to be sure they were ready to go from the first minute but unfortunately we fell away a bit in the second half.
“Nevertheless, there were some outstanding individual efforts from the back line and Keith Earls was very sharp and eager to get his hands on the ball. He took every opportunity that came his way very well. We got the result we were looking for. Regardless of whether it was four points or five, it was still going to come down to this week.”
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