Confidence is what’s lacking – Mallinder

NORTHAMPTON director of rugby Jim Mallinder believes his side are lacking confidence after they fell to a 43-32 defeat to Ospreys.

The Saints suffered a third straight loss in this season’s Champions Cup despite a late fightback at Franklin’s Gardens.

Two tries from each of Dan Evans and Jeff Hassler and scores from Tom Habberfield and Kieron Fonotia helped give the Welsh side a 43-8 lead, before the hosts rallied as Nic Groom, Rob Horne, Ahsee Tuala and Harry Mallinder all crossed.

Northampton lost fly-half Piers Francis to a head injury early on and replacement Stephen Myler, who kicked the first points of the day, was also forced off.

But Jim Mallinder would not use that as an excuse for the display.

He said: “It is unlucky to lose your two first-choice fly-halves at the start of a big European match but generally our game wasn’t good enough.

“I was really pleased with the spirit in the last 20 minutes because we showed there is a good team in there somewhere, but the first 60 minutes showed a team clearly lacking in confidence.

“We’ve got some good players, we’ve seen players playing well together and we’re all asking why we’re not playing well.

“We saw signs of the Saints of old in the last 20 minutes, but we’re not seeing it enough.”

Harry Mallinder and Ospreys replacement Robert McCusker were sin-binned after a brawl late on and Ospreys were reduced to 13 men when Hanno Dirksen was red-carded for a high tackle. Jim Mallinder