Downey looks set to follow Aston out of Northampton

NORTHAMPTON head coach Jim Mallinder could see Munster target James Downey follow England star Chris Ashton out the Franklin’s Gardens door if the Irishman fails to agree a new Saints contract.

England wing Ashton was dropped by Mallinder for Saturday’s 36-51 Heineken Cup defeat by Munster after announcing he will be joining Saracens when his contract expires at the end of the season. Former Munster player Downey will also be out of contract at the end of June and watching him play for Saints in their mauling by Munster at stadium:MK, Mallinder admitted the centre’s future at the English Premiership club was uncertain, with Munster in the frame to repatriate the Irishman in their search for a long-term fix in midfield.

Asked about negotiations to keep Downey at Northampton, Mallinder replied: “It’s ongoing that, so we’re not quite sure.”

The Saints boss was certain of one thing, however, his team had been outclassed by European rivals Munster in Milton Keynes. “We came out second best. Munster upped their game from what I’ve seen in the previous five games of the Heineken Cup,” Mallinder admitted. “They played well, they slowed down a lot of our ball to stop us getting any momentum. And they looked after the ball. It was very, very difficult to get the ball off them and we gave away penalties, through no lack of effort, and they got opportunities to score tries from them.”

Mallinder saw Northampton earn two penalty tries through their dominance at scrum time but pinpointed his side’s failure to field restarts as a “massive” factor in their eventual defeat.

“You talk about getting your set-piece right and our scrum was solid and dominant, but you need balance across your set-piece, to get your lineout right and your restarts and today we didn’t. We played badly. In the first half our restarts meant we couldn’t get out of our half and put pressure on ourselves. In the second half we tried to come back and got within five but then gave away an interception and the game was over then. Munster played better. That’s it. We were competing against one of Europe’s best sides. We did well away in Munster, we competed and we could have easily won that game. Today we came second best. You can’t just have dominance in the scrum and expect to win a game. Munster controlled just about every other area.”

As for Munster’s Heineken Cup campaign heading into the knockout stages as top seeds, Mallinder added: “They’ve got a good chance. A lot of people have written them off but they raised their game. They’re very good.”