Northampton stand firm with Mallinder

Board back coach after thrashing by Saracens Ospreys fly-half Biggar joins on two-year deal

Jim Mallinder, the Northampton director of rugby, and his coaches have been given a vote of confidence by the club’s board despite the “terrible” performance in the 55-24 defeat by Saracens in the opening round of the Premiership at Twickenham last Saturday.

Mallinder and his team came under fire from some supporters after conceding

seven tries in a humiliating first half despite high expectations after a promising preseason campaign.

The club had announced a new coaching structure for this season in February – bringing in former England flanker Phil Dowson – before the 2014 champions slipped to a seventh-place league finish last season.

However Mark Darbon, who replaced Allan Robson as the club’s chief executive in July, insisted that the board were fully supportive of Mallinder’s coaching team and squad and insisted there would be no “knee-jerk” reaction.

“The board and I are incredibly supportive of the [coaching] team that we have here and excited about what is to come,” said Darbon.

“We are one game into a long season and some of the changes we made last year – you saw the step change in terms of our attacking rugby from the first to the second half of the season last year.

“We definitely changed some of the way we approached pre-season this year and we are hoping to see the impact of that in the games early on this season.

“It wasn’t the start that we wanted. Dylan [Hartley, Northampton captain] captured it when he said it was a humbling experience.

“We were blown away in that first half. I thought we responded reasonably well in the second half but it was surprising on the back of our pre-season. But look, it is one game and we have got a long way to go and what a better way to try to respond than at home to the [Leicester] Tigers this weekend.”

The support for Mallinder came as he confirmed yesterday that the club had signed Wales and British and Irish Lions fly-half Dan Biggar on a two-year deal from the Ospreys for the start of next season.

Mallinder described Biggar as a “world class” signing, who could drive the side forward in a similar fashion to Owen Farrell at Saracens.

“I think he is not only skilful, but I like his attitude, that desire to win,” said Mallinder.

“You want leaders in your teams; look at some of those other flyhalves, Farrell for example, you see what a leader he is driving the team. Half-backs are key to that and that’s why he is such a good signing.

“As a person he’s fantastic and as a competitor he’s a fighter. He’ll be good for us.

“At the moment we’ve lost two fly-halves, with [Stephen] Myler and [Piers] Francis being injured. You’d never want to be in that position. Harry [Mallinder] is playing and is doing a good job but that’s not his No 1 position.’’

Mallinder admitted it had been a tough few days in the wake of the Saracens defeat but predicted a strong reaction against Leicester at Franklin’s Gardens on Saturday.

“It’s been a difficult week. We were terrible. We came off a poor second. I’ll be so disappointed if the players don’t react.”

Darbon moved to further assuage any concerns by the Northampton supporters by outlining a bold vision for the club. He said: “We want to be the No1 club on and off the pitch in Europe, as a starting point. I think a club with this history and heritage deserves that.’’