Mallinder delights in ‘one of the good wins’

When it was all over, when Jerome Garces called an end and the Northampton players had showered, changed and done with their media duties, Jim Mallinder punched a pass for his boys and sent them off into the Dublin night.

The Saints coach had labelled Leinster’s 40-7 win in Franklin’s Gardens seven days earlier “embarrassing” but called on his side to use the return in the Aviva Stadium as a “springboard” to their chockablock Christmas calendar. The response was a win to rank up there with the best the former England full-back has managed in six years at a club which he has dragged up by its bootlaces since finding them in England’s second tier in 2007.

A few hours on the town seemed a fair reward.