Mallinder points accusing finger at ref Owens

THERE are those who would agree with Jim Mallinder’s view that the better side lost a titanic battle of Heineken Cup heavyweights at Thomond Park on Saturday.

Whether they would back Mallinder in his damning assessment of Welsh ref Nigel Owens is another matter, but the Northampton coach was emphatic questions needed answering about Owens’s decision-making, as the brutal truth of an 84th-minute defeat began to sink in.

Asked if the Saints might not have got a fair crack of the whip, the disappointed coach responded: “I don’t know about that, I think he just got quite a lot wrong, it’s as simple as that; it is difficult and it’s an intimidating place to play. It’s a cracking atmosphere and the crowd get behind the team, sometimes you don’t always get the rub of the green. I think we will look back and probably say that we didn’t quite get it.”

Quizzed further as to whether referees need to be stronger; whether it was a home rule situation, his one-word response: “Yes.”

Central to complaints were his doubts about the validity of penalties or advantage awarded to Munster in the scrum and in rulings relating to ruck and maul.

“I think we’re going to have to have a good look at all of the scrums. We pride ourselves on the scrum and always seek to dominate in that area and I don’t think we got the just rewards today.”

Northampton conceded scrum possession from a maul which Mallinder believed was very much going forward at the time. Strange? “From where I was sitting, there seemed to be a lot of bodies coming in the wrong side. It was pivotal; there were a number of pivotal moments, the scrum was one, the maul another and the breakdown in general. You don’t wheel a scrum when you’re moving forward; we had dominance in that area and to be penalised at least twice, (these) were crucial decisions because it’s either points (against) or real good field position (for Munster).”

Beyond referee Owens, Mallinder conceded he had plenty food for thought in the coming days. “Frustration is probably the best term to use in terms of how we feel, frustration in terms of how that went; we will look at ourselves and we did have a chance to at least score one other try, a very good clear-cut opportunity where we knocked on. We will look back at the start of the second half where we dropped the kick off and gave them three points, so we will look at ourselves, but I think the game did hinge on some crucial refereeing decisions.”

He conceded there was no room for error in the remaining five matches: “We’re still in the competition; to come here and get a point is not the end of the world but we had a very good chance of winning today. We knew that before the game and we still think that now.

“We know we’re a good team and we know we can come away to places like this and compete with some of the best teams in Europe. We proved that last season and again here, so we will take heart from that, although it just puts pressure on us now to win our remaining games.”

If Mallinder didn’t remember the “Miracle Match”, Munster’s famous victory over Gloucester way back when, he witnessed a new version of it on Saturday as the home side went through 41 phases before Ronan O’Gara dropped the winning goal with the clock deep in the red zone.

“It was very strange,” said the Northampton man, “I was speaking to the players afterwards and they were scared stiff of competing at that breakdown to give away penalties.

“Munster have changed personnel a bit but they’re still a competitive outfit, very competitive at the breakdown, they’re very strong in the driving maul and I guess with O’Gara pulling the strings at half back, they can still win close games.”