SAINTS: Shane repays coach's faith
Saints boss Jim Mallinder said he was confident Shane Geraghty would come good after a poor first half in their Heineken Cup clash with Treviso.
Geraghty was charged down for the Italians' opening try after just six minutes and his game was slow to recover as Saints went in at the break 13-8 down and staring at a shock home pool one defeat.
But Geraghty and the rest of the team turned things around after the break with three tries in 10 blistering minutes to seal a bonus-point win that keeps them right in contention to qualify from arguably the toughest pool in the competition.
Treviso have already beaten French champions Perpignan, but Mallinder had faith in Geraghty's ability to restore some order after a chaotic first half.
Mallinder said: "I didn't think about taking Shane off at half-time to be honest. It is always there at the back of your mind that you can make those changes, but I was confident Shane would sort himself out.
"It wasn't a disaster he had, he made two or three bad options and sometimes you have got to give the lads confidence and let them get into the game.
"The crowd can get frustrated and sometimes get at players. That can affect you and he did well to come back from that.
"The whole team didn't get much shape to our game. Even though we made quite a few breaks and created some opportunities we couldn't hold on to the ball and put them under pressure.
"Treviso came with a limited game plan, they did it quite well in the first half, by slowing things down and taking their opportunities when they came drop-goal-wise, but thankfully we sorted it out in the second half."
Ben Foden grabbed a try five minutes into injury-time at the end of the first half that gave Saints the platform for a stunning second half come back.
Mallinder added: "The try on half-time was crucial. It was nothing flash, it was just being hard and direct, getting round the corner and looking after the ball.
"We put together a few phases, which was the first time we did it that half."
Saints are now second in pool one, just a point behind Munster, but another five points in Italy this Saturday could see them go top of the group if Munster lose in Perpignan.
Mallinder said: "It is a tight pool. It will be interesting to see the what happens in the Perpignan-Munster game next week and if Perpignan
win, there will be three teams in it.
"We have got to concentrate on ourselves and get as many points as we can at Treviso.
"They are not a bad side, they can turn teams over, so we have got to make sure we are mentally and physically prepared."
Full match report and reaction in today's Chron
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Friday 10 February 2012
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