Northampton Saints: Jim tells Saints to do more
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JIM MALLINDER has told his Saints to show they are more than just a scrum against Wasps today.
Sky Sports pundit Stuart Barnes accused Saints of “devolving into just a scrum” as they were humbled in their last two games, conceding 10 tries and nearly 100 points in defeats to Munster and Bath.
In both games the Saints scrum was the one shining light, with it on top in both encounters and winning two penalty tries against Munster.
But Mallinder says they need more than that to get back to winning ways and secure an LV= Cup semi-final spot at Franklin’s Gardens today.
“We look to dominate in the scrum every single week and we will be looking to do that again against Wasps, but we need to do more than that,” said Mallinder.
“It is not good enough to have just a good scrum, those same players have got to be able to do well in the lineout, getting round the field and carrying the ball, clearing out accurately and defending when we don’t have the ball. It is that all-round game we are looking for.”
For the past two games Saints have struggled to get any front-foot ball to leave their attacking game floundering at a slowed-up breakdown.
With the return of the Premiership around the corner, Mallinder wants that sorted out against strugglers Wasps today and a return to the all-conquering flowing rugby that saw Saints storm to third in the league.
“The breakdown was a bit of a lottery against Munster, we found it was refereed slightly differently from the Premiership and that is a different issue all together,” said Mallinder. “We have to adapt to the referee, hopefully that is something we will learn from.
“All aspects of the game are important, you can’t just say the breakdown is the most important and not have a set-piece, because you will not have any ball and be on the back foot defending.
“We put an emphasis on each individual area in the week and hopefully at the weekend it all comes together.”
Last week, for one reason and another, Mallinder was without 18 of his frontline players against Bath. This week he makes eight changes to the side with Soane Tonga’uiha, Brian Mujati, George Pisi, James Downey and Roger Wilson all coming back into the starting line-up.
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