Longest 80 minutes I’ve ever played

THE black eye was just the visible manifestation of the pain Northampton forward Tom Wood was feeling after his side’s humiliation by Leinster.

The England back row was ashamed and embarrassed by his team’s performance at Franklin’s Gardens as the three-time Heineken Cup champions demolished the Saints 40-7 to leave Wood’s side needing a miracle to get out of Pool 1. While Wood appeared shell-shocked by an experience he described as “soul-destroying”, he was still acutely aware there was nothing the Saints coaches needed to tell the players about how abject they had been in front of their own supporters.

“There is no hair dryer treatment because we are all pretty ashamed about what just happened. To have fans call you an embarrassment as you leave the field is about as bad as it gets. All we try to do is make the fans proud of what we do as a team and we can’t be proud of what we did out there today and we don’t expect them to be. We can only apologise.