Mallinder: Saints would relish rematch

NORTHAMPTON coach Jim Mallinder would relish the opportunity to return for another game with Munster at Thomond Park, should the Heineken Cup quarter-final draw throw the two sides together.

Mallinder saw the game as a lost opportunity for his side, as he noted: “I keep looking back to that series of scrums on the line and can’t help wondering whether we might have done anything differently; I think we made the right decision to keep re-scrumming but we didn’t convert the pressure into points, and we missed a couple of kicks at goal as well.

“Maybe we might have kept the ball in hand more when they were down to seven players (in the pack, after the sin binning of Paul O’Connell), but these are things you think about after the game,” he said. Mallinder saw the line-outs and scrums as areas where his side could trouble Munster in a possible re-match. “I think, however, we probably committed too many players to the rucks and that limited our options. We would certainly have to look at that aspect of our play,” he suggested, “but we wouldn’t mind making a return to Limerick if that’s what is thrown at us.”

Munster coach Tony McGahan admitted it was as tough a game to watch as it was on the field. “You would like to have a grand structure in place to be able to break down sides, but sometimes it doesn’t go like that, sometimes you need to dig in and grind it out, it was a big chess battle out there with every move having a consequence. I suppose that’s cup rugby, that’s the Heineken Cup,” said McGahan.

“We showed great desire, great effort; we were under severe pressure at times, we had a couple of issues, Paul was off for ten minutes and we had to dig in and find a way out. We were lucky enough to find a way out, get down the pitch and tack on three points.”

The contribution of Doug Howlett, not least to the scrum that Munster turned over to relieve huge pressure after O’Connell had been yellow-carded, was lauded by McGahan.

“Doug is a world-class player and the biggest thing he brings to the side is his work rate and honesty on everyone, he always comes up with the big plays because he puts himself in that position; his effort tonight highlighted the desire and belief of this group.”

That belief was there right to the end, insisted McGahan. “If you look at the game, I don’t think the belief was ever in doubt; last year we came back against Montauban and Clermont, and a big turning point for us in this game was to get off our line after being under so much pressure.”