APV1 says...

Mallinder's gone right down in my estimation, since his treatment of Ashton. I'm not suggesting that Ashton didn't deserve a word about the way he behaved, but Mallinder should have been the bigger man and had the chat "back of house".

And, lawynd, I agree. The Saints are starting to get a rep of being a dirty team, rather than a hard team. Fairly or not, reputations are hard to lose. And it's an accusation being levelled at not just an individual or two (e.g. Marler and Brown at Quins, spring to mind - both have improved enormously; Armitage at Irish - improvement still needed), but at the team and squad as a whole. A shame, really, as I want the AP to be hard fought, but fair and clean.

Posted 11:18 22nd March 2012

lawynd says...

I admit APV1, I chortled like a drain.

I know derbies always have a little extra niggle and I'd never want that to change, but it does seem that Northampton players seem to be going out with the intention of hurting the opposition in the last couple of years. We've got the AP semi-final last year where successive players hit Flood late (I won't excuse Tuilagi, before anyone raises that point!), Hartley biting Strauss in the HEC Final last year, as well as the cheap shot on McCaw, and accused now of biting Ferris. And then there's Calum Clark's horrific arm break on Hawkins in the LV Cup Final last weekend. Mallinder and West are decent blokes, but this is clearly a squad issue now, surely?

Posted 16:01 21st March 2012

rugby_rockstar says...

I think they became very frantic in the second half and lost their cool. Headless chicken stuff in attack. They self-destructed but credit to the Tigers for piling on the pressure until they blew it.

Posted 11:38 20th March 2012