Hartley cool as Thomond loses fear for Saints

BEFORE Northampton Saints travelled to Thomond Park to play Munster in January Dylan Hartley, their captain, talked about the image he had in his mind of Paul O’Connell leading out a side of giants, breathing fire and using every trick in the book to win the game before the first whistle had even been blown.

Yet ahead of Saturday’s rematch, this time in the Heineken Cup quarter-finals, the England hooker’s demeanour has changed; the Munster myth, he feels, has been broken and Saints are heading to Limerick fully confident of claiming a spot in the last four.

“We know what to expect, and there’s no fear,” explains Hartley, whose side beat Munster 31-27 at Franklin’s Gardens before losing by just three points at Fortress Thomond in the pool stages. “Every one of the players is saying the same thing – we’ve been there, we know what Munster are about, and it’s not the unknown for us.