Saints defence pleases Mallinder

Northampton director of rugby Jim Mallinder praised his side's defence as they beat Connacht in their Champions Cup play-off on Saturday.

Saints won 21-15 at Franklin's Gardens to set up a clash with Stade Français next Friday at the same ground for a place in the competition.

Harry Mallinder scored 16 points for Northampton while Nic Groom added the other try, but boss Mallinder was most happy with their defence.

"Because we have lost a number of games towards the end, it was nice to win one," he told Premiership Rugby following their success. "Our defence was good throughout the game, we had some good line-speed, made good tackles and showed good composure towards the end.

"It was remarkably easy to (motivate the Northampton players). I was worried about this week and peoples' minds thinking they should be on holiday, with the Lions or with England, but once they came back in on Monday the attitude has been very good and you saw that today.

"It wasn’t 100 percent accurate, but there were some good things in there and defensively we were pretty good."

He added: "It's a terrific way to end the season with a home game against Stade but we'll have to play a lot better if we are going to win as they are getting better week by week.

"These play-offs make it a long season but we've been given a chance so we need to take that opportunity."