Prop power delights boss
Northampton Saints boss Jim Mallinder hailed his prop power after his pack saw off champions Leicester and sent out a warning to the rest of the Aviva Premiership.
Northampton won a thunderous battle of the two favourites for the Premiership crown 27-19 with tries from props Soane Tonga'uiha and Brian Mujati.
The 20st Tongan giant scored two tries in a stunning opening barrage that blew Leicester away and his prop pal Mujati finished them off to give Saints a brilliant start to a season that could see them claim a first Premiership crown.
Mallinder said: "The start was a cracker, a real good combination of forwards and backs, really good lines and support play.
"I was really pleased to get off to that start.
"Soane is a massive threat, but it is what we want from our forwards.
We want them good in the tight and a threat in the loose, Brian Mujati backed that up.
"We were very pleased with our front fives' tight play and also the combinations on the field. To see both props scoring tries is very pleasing."
Saints carved Leicester open time and again straight up the middle.
But Mallinder revealed it wasn't a game plan just good management from the players.
"It wasn't really the plan," said Mallinder. "You have got to go for their weaknesses.
"If they fan out then you have got to go through the heart of them, and that is what we did for those tries. And when they do start defending a little tighter then that is when you go wide."
Another plus point for Mallinder was the performance of debutant Tom
Wood, who picked up the Aviva man of the match award for his display at openside.
Saints should and would have won by a bigger margin.
But Stephen Myler had a bad day with the boot, missing five penalities, four of them in a row either side of half-time that eventually saw him hauled off for Shane Geraghty.
And Geraghty made an instant impact, having a big hand in Mujati's try and landing the touchline conversion.
Mallinder said: "You can't hide the fact Stephen had an off day with the boot, a little bit like them, they missed some penalties as well.
"If we had kicked our penalties we would have been well away from them.
"Stephen got the nod for this game. He had a good Saxons trip to Canada, and he came back confident, played well in our pre-season games, so got the nod, but Shane is a talent as we saw.
"He has that ability to hit the short side, which created the Mujati try with that lovely Dowson offload.
"And kicking that conversion as well puts the pressure on. It makes it a good choice for me."
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Weather for Kettering
Sunday 27 May 2012
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