Did Mallinder play into Munster hands by dropping Aston?

RUGBY fans reckon Northampton coach Jim Mallinder’s decision to drop controversial wing ChrisAshton helped Simon Zebo notch his hat-trick of tries for Munster.

A poll on PlanetRugby.com asked site users whether Mallinder’s call to drop Ashton in the wake of his decision to move to Saracens next season was (a) the right thing to do, (b) irrelevant or (c) ‘ask Simon Zebo’.

At the time of writing, 516 had opted for the Zebo option, comfortably trumping theothers, with 282 backing the Saints’ coach’s stance while 181 reckoned the decision was irrelevant.