Saints need to have a look at themselves: Mallinder

Northampton Saints boss Jim Mallinder has told the Northampton Chronicle that players and management need to have a ‘real good look at themselves’ after so nearly seeing their unbeaten run ended by Newbury.

Guinness Premiership relegated Saints enjoyed a high against Coventry where they scored 10 tries but came back down to earth with a bump against Newbury who had the confidence to match Northampton’s running rugby.

The result was that Saints squeezed out a a 24-23 win but failed to pick up a four-try bonus which sees their lead on the National League One table cut to 11 points.

“We spoke last week about how we can take the performance forward after the Coventry win and quite obviously we’ve not done that. Mallinder told the Northampton Chronicle.

“We need to have a real good look at ourselves, the management and the players and we need to get things back on track again. Preparation was very similar to what we have done in previous weeks.”

“We did a lot of good things,” said Mallinder. “The lineout was good, we got some excellent drives going, we created and achieved some good line breaks, but we didn’t capitalise on it.

“I would like to go out there and win by 60 points every week, but that’s not how it happens.