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.

“It’s definitely one of the good wins. You don’t get many wins away from home in the Heineken Cup and you don’t get many wins against a quality side like Leinster. And they are still a quality side. Just because we’ve beaten them doesn’t put them down in my estimation at all.

“We’ll enjoy it. I hope the lads go out and have few beers and experience what Dublin’s all about, particularly on the back of a win, because last week it felt like being in Dublin, at home, and that really hurt to see their supporters celebrating. That’s a terrible feeling and we don’t want that to happen again.”

The likelihood is the win will do far more for their domestic than continental ambitions as the East Midland club realigns itself for a trip to Wasps and home games against Bath and Harlequins before the Heineken Cup kicks in again.

The ceiling they can now aspire to is 19 points — and they will require bonus points against Ospreys and Castres — but the odds are that Saturday’s retort was merely an early parting shot before the English boycott.

Stade Francais did manage to win a pool three years ago with only 18 points but only one club has made the last eight with 19 in the last seven seasons and that happened to be Northampton back in 2009 when Munster topped the table.

An ember of hope, then.

“Yeah, it gives a little life to the group,” said Mallinder. “We’re not dead and buried. We’ve still got two tough games to go, but Leinster have got that as well. It gives us hope.

“It’s great to still be in the competition, to have something to play for, and it sets us well for the next few weeks in the Premiership.”

You have to hand it to Northampton. This is a club that knows how to pick itself up off the canvas as this was the third December in succession where they turned bad defeats into victories after the first of the back-to-back meetings.

Castres, Ulster and Leinster will approach with caution when their paths cross in future years and yet Mallinder must surely have flown home ruing their systems failure in the home leg which should ultimately cost them their advancement.

“It’s frustrating,” admitted Mallinder, “but we all have setbacks don’t we in life?

“We talked about it in the week, we all have setbacks in rugby and its how your respond. That’s the main thing. That’s what ‘s pleasing, how we’ve responded.”