Jim Mallinder, the Northampton director of rugby, confirmed that he will meet England coach Eddie Jones next week to discuss the future of Alex King after watching his side grind out a hard-fought victory over Exeter Chiefs.
Jones has already met with King to discuss taking up the role of England backs coach, but no formal approach has been made to Northampton. That may change next week when Jones returns to the country after visiting relatives in Australia.
Steve Borthwick is now part of Jones's coaching staff Photo: REX FEATURES
“I do know that he is coming back next week and he is going to come into the club to see me for a chat,” Mallinder said. “Hopefully I will know more then.”
As the scoreline suggested there was very little enterprising backline play on display at Franklin’s Gardens. The driving rain and Northampton’s desperation for a victory after their surprise loss to London Irish last week put pay to that. The players held a clear-the-air talks in the week and they had the desired effect as a try from Mike Haywood and a penalty from JJ Hanrahan ended Exeter’s six-game winning run in the Premiership.
“We had a long, hard look at ourselves after the Irish game and we really needed that ‘W’ to start this year,” Ben Foden, the Northampton captain, said. “There was a lot of talk about why things aren’t going right, but we know we can’t just have one meeting and then produce the performance of the decade. We’ve still got a lot of work to do.”
Mike Haywood scores for Saints
It was a victory built on perspiration rather than inspiration, guts rather than glory. Collectively, Northampton missed just seven tackles. Exeter came into the game with the league’s most potent attack but found themselves suffocated by a swarming tide of green, gold and black.
The outstanding performers were found in the young Northampton front row of Alex Waller, Haywood and Paul Hill who gave the Chiefs a torrid time up front. All were starting in place of established England front-rowers – Alex Corbisiero, Dylan Hartley and Kieran Brookes – and Borthwick’s report card will provide Jones with much food for thought.
Haywood took the man-of-the-match honours and Mallinder confirmed that the hooker is starting ahead of Hartley, seemingly Jones’ preferred choice of captain, on form. “It was a big call to start with Mikey Haywood above Dylan but he showed what he can do today,” Mallinder said. “When we got to the final and won the Premiership, Mikey was a massive part of that and he started the final. But when Dylan came on today, he was excellent as well.”
Northampton give Exeter no space
It was Haywood who scored the only try of the game in the 15th minute when Saints set up a driving lineout that split the Exeter maul defence. Hanrahan’s conversion hit the post but he duly made amends with a penalty on the half-hour mark after Exeter were offside.
Turnovers proliferated as conditions worsened. A crowd of 15,430, a record for the modern era at the Gardens, became agitated as Exeter came into the game off the back of some loose kicking. Yet when the Chiefs came within range of the Saints tryline, Northampton found a way to stop them. Christian Day and Courtney Lawes both produced turnovers in the shadow of their own posts while George Pisi delivered a huge hit on former Saint Will Hooley.
In the end, the only score for the visitors came from the boot of Gareth Steenson with five minutes to go which did at least earn a bonus point to the relief of Rob Baxter, the head coach.
“We’ve stolen a point – that’s what it feels like,” Baxter said. “I looked at the clock with 14 minutes left and it felt like we hadn’t done anything. We need to re-set ourselves, get ready for Monday and playing at home against Gloucester next weekend, because we weren’t quite good enough today.”
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