Proud Jim says little bit of slack play cost Saints
Jim Mallinder spoke of the pride he has in his team after the Northampton Saints director of rugby saw a Twickenham final slip agonisingly through his players' grasp.
It finished one try each but 11-5 to Cardiff Blues in the EDF Energy Cup semi-final at the Ricoh Arena on Saturday.
More than 5,000 travelling Saints fans left Coventry disappointed, especially after seeing their side match the Blues for large parts of the game, but crucial errors cost them.
The heart and the endeavour was more than evident though and Mallinder said: "I am really proud of the team. From where we have come from in 18 months, from being relegated and being in the first division, we have come a long way.
"And we have improved this year, right from the beginning of the season, we have improved and we are moving forward. We have just got to keep working at it.
"I am really proud of our performance. For 80 minutes we stuck in there and we created some chances and in semi-finals like this you've got to take those opportunities, unfortunately we didn't. But we are moving forwards, we are going in the right direction and we have come a long way in 18 months.
"I always thought we were in the game, even at half-time, but a little bit of slack play by us, a couple of missed kicks and a little bit of ill-discipline cost us.
"This experience will do us really good and we are still in another cup."
Saints missed all three of their kicks at the posts, with Stephen Myler firing wide with a penalty and a conversion and his replacement Barry Everitt also failing with a penalty.
But Mallinder refused to heap the blame solely on his kickers.
"You don't blame the kickers for that," said Mallinder. "Their kicker didn't get 100 per cent. In any game you like to get 100 per cent from your kicks, but we had other opportunities.
"I seem to remember Joe Ansbro in the first half and a little chip that nearly came off. We had try-scoring opportunities as well, so it is one of those things."
The silver lining for Saints is that the performance showed how far they have come in their first season back in the top flight and they still have a European Challenge Cup quarter-final against Connacht to look forward to.
Mallinder added: "I am disappointed for the team to lose a game like that, semi-finals are often close, but we are improving and still have a lot to play for."
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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