Mallinder: No answer to O'Gara

Northampton coach Jim Mallinder admitted Saints were powerless to prevent Ronan O’Gara from ending English interest in the Heineken Cup.

The Ireland fly-half masterminded Munster’s 33-19 victory at Thomond Park that puts the two-time champions on a semi-final collision course with Biarritz.

O’Gara landed 13 points but it was his kicking out of hand that did the damage, using the wind to produce a pinpoint barrage of long-range touchfinders in the decisive final quarter.

“We talked at half time about what O’Gara would do, though unfortunately talking isn’t quite good enough and he’s a master,” said Mallinder.

“It was quite windy out there and he controlled that second half particularly well. O’Gara’s a good player and Munster are a good team.

“Defensively we were a little bit off our game and not quite clinical enough in attack.

“We couldn’t really get out of our half in the second half. We thought we could break Munster down by playing some rugby and if we looked after the ball we could score some tries, but we needed quality ball but didn’t get enough of that.

“We knew we had a chance of winning this game, a good chance. We just didn’t perform the way we know we can, but the best team won on the day.”

Saints established a 16-13 half-time lead thanks to a try from centre Jon Clarke and the flawless kicking of Stephen Myler, who finished with 14 points.

But Munster, inspired by O’Gara, responded brilliantly in the last 20 minutes. They won the try count 4-1 with Doug Howlett touching down twice and Jean de Villiers and Paul Warwick also crossing.

With their European adventure over, Saints must now rally for their assault on the Guinness Premiership title.

“It’s a real losing changing room and we’ve not had many of those at Saints. It’s quiet and the lads are really down,” said Mallinder.

“It will take 24-48 hours to get it out of the system and we have to do that quickly because we have four Premiership games left and we’re second in the league.

“The sign of a good team is how quickly you bounce back from something like this.”

Munster coach Tony McGahan admitted O’Gara played a crucial role in their passage into the semi-finals.

“Ronan was fantastic – he was at his best today with his game management,” he said.

“He controlled everything and that was a big part of our game. We needed him today.”

Paul O’Connell withdrew from the side shortly before kick off because of a groin problem and the Munster captain will continue to be monitored over the coming week.

“Relief is my initial reaction, especially after last week’s result. The players were superb. We were very composed,” said McGahan.

“The forwards were tremendous as they have been under scrutiny all season.

“Following the loss of Paul we needed to step up to the mark and we did that. Mick O’Driscoll was excellent coming in for Paul.”