Saints keeping their spirits up

AS A tactic to impress the Twickenham hierarchy, sending your entire team out to get drunk together on Sunday night is an unusual one, even for Jim Mallinder.

Yet Northampton Saints’ director of rugby, who makes no secret of his desire to become England’s head coach at some point in the future, has carte blanche to do whatever he likes at Franklin’s Gardens.

The night out in question came late last month after Saints had beaten Gloucester to lift the LV Cup in what could be the first leg of a treble campaign, but with a huge Guinness Premiership clash against Wasps just six days away, it was still a surprise Mallinder let his players off the leash.