Upbeat boss hails team’s work rate

WASPS head coach Lee Blackett stayed positive as Northampton snatched an extraordinary 40-36 win.

Wasps appeared set to lift the mood around the CBS Arena, amid all the financial problems at the club, as a dominant performance at the breakdown played a big part in them holding a 36-28 lead going into the last three minutes.

However, Northampton, who had largely been second-best, produced an amazing turnaround as Alex Coles’ try gave them a foothold before Courtnall Skosan struck from the final play for the winning score.

Blackett said: “The work rate was outstanding, they put a lot of effort into it.

“There’s a lot of guys having their first couple of games of the season as well out there, so there were loads of pleasing parts to it, if we could just have seen it through.

“That’s why we’re obviously gutted - you look at the last 12 minutes and conceding three tries once we went down to 14.

“Obviously it was a penalty try and a red card, but then we conceded two more during that period.

“When you look at off the field, I think everyone at first is really positive.

“I think it’s only natural that the longer it carries on, the more people will start to get worried.

“They’re playing some good rugby, the boys, at the moment - we could be sat here four from four and we’re sat here one from four.”

Saints director of rugby Phil Dowson said: “It’s frustrating because it took us that long to start playing, really.

“We spent a lot of time in the first half in our own half, territory-wise, putting ourselves under pressure.

“I thought they played very well, they did exactly what we’d spoken about doing tactically, putting the ball in behind, working really hard to put us under pressure and create opportunities that way.

“I thought discipline was poor as well, but in the latter stages of the second half we finally found a bit of rhythm and managed to get going.

“The last few minutes were great, but there’s probably 60 or 70 minutes that weren’t.

“We’re delighted with the relentless effort, but we also understand that we need to be better than that.”