Mallinder: Still room for improvement
Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:32
The Saints camp are delighted to reach the LV= Cup final thanks to a four-try win over Saracens on Sunday.
Despite putting Saracens to the sword with some accurate running rugby and clinical finishing, there was still room for improvement identified by director of rugby Jim Mallinder and his players.
Two of the Saints' tries were scored while Saracens had Richard Skuse in the sin bin, but Mallinder said that even more points could have come during that period, and the earlier 10 minutes when Ernst Joubert was cooling his heels on the sidelines.
"We didn't take advantage of the sin binnings as much as we could have done," the Saints boss said.
"We had a number of scrums at which we conceded penalties and free-kicks and they played quite well when they were down to 14. I was a little bit frustrated when we went down to 14 and then 13 men towards the end because instead of putting the game out of reach it just gave them a little bit of a chance.
"But we created a lot. In the first half we were against the wind and playing up the hill so we knew that was going to be tricky, especially if he [Derick Hougaard] kicked his penalties, which he did. But then in the second half we thought that if we put some phases together we could open them up."
Saints have a busy run of games at the end of the season as they are still in the running for the LV= Cup, Heineken Cup and the Guinness Premiership.
"We'd much rather be in a cup final and doing well in the league and still have a chance in the Heineken Cup quarter finals because we want our holidays in the summer, not during the season," Mallinder said.
Number eight Roger Wilson, who made his 50th appearance in the match, paid tribute to the tight-five for creating the platform on which the backs could perform.
"It was a good win that got us into the final," he said. "It wasn't a perfect performance but when you get to the semifinal of a cup the pressure comes on. But we've got ourselves into another final.
"We could have had a few more, to be honest! We're still playing attacking rugby and we tried to speed up the game as much as possible. But we wouldn't have been able to do that without the set piece we had, especially the scrum, which gave us a good platform."
Contact Us | Terms and Conditions | Privacy Policy | Advertising
