Director of rugby Jim Mallinder says that this season’s European Rugby Champions Cup has been more exciting than ever with some eye-catching results.
As well as the Saints’ reverse in Paris last weekend there were comprehensive wins for Glasgow over the Scarlets, Ulster at home to Toulouse, Leicester away at Munster and Exeter’s come-from-behind success against Clermont Auvergne.
With Wasps having also comprehensively beaten Toulon earlier in the competition, and three-times winners Leinster down and out with three losses from three, matches across the continent have shown that anyone can beat anyone else.
“It has been a little bit surprising this season,” Mallinder says in this week’s podcast. “You never know how it’s going to work, and I think that the World Cup has made a bit of a difference. It affects some teams more than others, and while you can think that it’s just an English problem affecting English teams it’s been something that’s affected the Scottish, Welsh and French sides as well.
“There have been some interesting results and it’s fantastic, a little bit like the Aviva Premiership where everybody is capable of beating everybody else. That’s what you want.
“We know about the French sides and their big squads, but like we saw when Toulon went to Wasps if you don’t turn up or are not in the right frame of mind and think you’ve just got to turn up and win you won’t, and you’ll get beaten.”
The full interview is available for FREE on any device at www.soundcloud.com/official-saints-rugby or by subscribing via iTunes. This week’s podcast also includes extended interviews with George North, Courtney Lawes and Paul Hill.
Get behind the team by booking tickets for Saints v Racing at www.tinyurl.com/SAI-RAC-1516 and using Print@Home to beat the match day queues and save the admin fees. Groups of seats remain available in Blocks 8, 15, 24, 29 and 30, as well as in the Burrda Stand’s lower tier.
