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.”