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Jim Mallinder cannot have wished for a better fixture straight after Northampton’s 55-24 thrashing to Saracens than Leicester at Franklin’s Gardens. Win and the bitterness of their Twickenham disgrace will be instantly erased.
It can set the direction for the rest of their season. Lose and there will be 18,000 knees jerking in the Gardens.
Every player will have experienced that type of embarrassing defeat at some point in their career. I was in an England team that lost to Australia to 70 points. Let me tell you, it is not pleasant. You would do anything to get rid of the feeling.
But it does guarantee a reaction the following week, and the fact that it is an East Midlands derby amplifies the feeling further. Without having played in other derbies I can’t comment on whether it is English rugby’s biggest grudge match. All I know is that whenever they play, sparks are guaranteed to fly.
My main memory of playing in those derbies was the fights it produced, normally after Matt Dawson had done something to wind me up. In more recent times, you think of Campese Ma’afu v Tom Youngs or Dylan Hartley v Matt Smith; BT Sport have even put together a collage of all the on-field dust-ups.
Part of what makes it special is that you have this area in between Northampton and Leicester with places like Market Harborough, Corby and Kettering where offices and schools are split down the middle between Tigers and Saints. Defeat is unpalatable.
Leicester are also coming off the back of their own defeat to Bath at home, albeit they didn’t concede nine tries. Firstly they will need to address their lineout which was uncharacteristically creaky at Welford Road. Matt O’Connor must also remind his England half-backs Ben Youngs and George Ford that they do not have to play rugby from everywhere on the field. A good kick to the corner is just as valuable as a big mis-pass, particularly if contains an element of surprise.
It doesn’t help that they will be missing Manu Tuilagi for the next 12 weeks. His latest bout of knee surgery is hardly surprising given his injury record but that does not diminish the sympathy you feel for him. Sometimes you just feel a player is cursed. I don’t how many mirrors he has broken or ladders he has walked under but he doesn’t deserve it.
That is a sad situation but Northampton will look to latch on to that as a positive in a week in which they need to seize every silver lining they can find. Dan Biggar’s signing should lift the mood. Add any of George North, Cobus Reinach and Rob Horne will make their backline significantly more threatening. After a disappointing summer with the Lions, I feel North will come back with a bang.
Most of their problems against Saracens were in the pack, with the exception of Courtney Lawes. At times it felt like Lawes was in the ring by himself against eight Saracens forwards. There was a complete absence of intensity or workrate from the forwards, particularly in the first half. A symptom of that was Harry Mallinder often defending at guard or bodyguard where he got caught looking at the ruck rather than scanning what was in front of him. Mallinder should not really be there but he is there because he has got a high work rate and the front five have not got themselves into position. He will get criticised for missing tackles, but at least he made the effort to get there in the first place.
When you look at their pack on paper, you think how can that happen with Dylan Hartley, Tom Wood and Lawes there? They need a big reaction at the Gardens.
Before Manu’s injury I was fairly confident that Leicester would win. Now I am not so sure. The stakes are always huge for an East Midlands derby. With both teams having lost their opening games, I think it comes down to who can least afford to lose, which may favour Northampton.
Regardless of whether Northampton ultimately lose, I think it is ridiculous to say that Jim Mallinder is under pressure. If you sack your coach within eight games let alone two then as a club you made a massive mistake in the summer. I think it was Brian Clough who said that if the chairman sacks his manager then he should also offer his resignation.
Yes the club have gone backwards since winning the Premiership in 2014, but when you look at their comings and goings since then they have brought in one superstar in Louis Picamoles who they subsequently sold along with two of their other best players Kahn Fotuali’i and Samu Manoa. No wonder they have regressed.
Austin Healey is a proud ambassador of Jeep Grand Cherokee. www.jeep.co.uk
Defeat is not an option for Northampton as they face Leicester in East Midlands derby