Christmas came early for anyone wearing a London Irish shirt on Saturday in Reading as Saints were in a benevolent mood, gift wrapping a win for the Exiles.
It was nothing less than an absolute shocker for the Saints.
London Irish were desperate for a win and Saints opened the gate and let them walk right through. It was an abject display from the Saintsmen, one of the worst that I have seen for some time and I am sure they have all had an uncomfortable few days mulling it over since.
What it goes to prove is that you simply cannot turn up and expect to perform, any chink in your mental approach and any of the teams in the Premiership are capable of stepping up and taking advantage of mental lapses.
If I am being totally frank, I have seen this coming and last week feared that the record start to the season could come off the rails at the Madejski stadium and thus my gut feeling was correct.
I simply do not buy into the theory that the injuries cost Northampton, yes it is a fact they have several key men out injured at the moment but just take one long look at the starting line-up for Saints on Saturday, it was a team well capable of getting a result but they were just not at the races mentally.
There have been lots of people pointing to the back three discussing their performance, they did not play well but let’s not kid ourselves – that is not where the game was won and lost. From a tactical point of view it would have been better to start with Tom May at full-back and not Vasily Artemyev after James Wilson withdrew. That was a mistake.
I have had concerns over Artemyev’s confidence for a few weeks, and it was a call that truly backfired.
But despite the errors made by the backs, the real crux of the issue was that Saints were bullied up front, not a statement I was expecting to write this week.
For me, the game was lost with a well below-par performance from the Saints pack. The sad fact is London Irish didn’t really have to do anything too special, Northampton made it very easy for them with some poor basic errors.
The set-piece was poor and without that base to play from Northampton are always going to be vulnerable.
If we are totally frank and honest these issues have been there during the first five games, I will point again to that last quarter of the Worcester game.
Any other team watching that will have taken heart that Northampton are still prone to moments of losing focus, unfortunately on Saturday they lost it for almost the whole 80 minutes.
The positive that will come out of Saturday is that Northampton cannot play as poorly as that again.
It also coincided with a shocker from Quins and a below-par display from Sarries which has mitigated the damage to their position in the league.
I fully expect a backlash against Glasgow on Sunday; it will be a long week for the players who will be desperate to make amends. There will have been a couple of video horror shows, with players ducking for cover as the Dorian West and Jim Mallinder hairdryer treatment was dished out.
Out of that embarrassment will come a stronger team and a determination not to allow that to happen again.
It would be a really big concern if we didn’t see that reaction on Sunday. Glasgow are no mugs and have showed on a number of occasions in the Heineken Cup that they are well capable of taking a big scalp, the fortunate thing for the Saints is that they are at home this weekend.
I would have been a great deal more concerned if this game was away.
Venues choice is an own goal
The RFU announcement over the potential Rugby World Cup venues has kicked up a stink this week, particularly with some consternation up the road at Leicester.
I must admit I was surprised to see them omitted from the long list of stadiums as they have hosted such similar events before and have a long heritage of having international touring teams playing there over the years.
The simple facts are that this is down to money. The RFU as hosts of the tournament have to recoup the guarantee of £80m that they must pay to the International Rugby Board for the privilege of being hosts.
Their only means of making up that amount is through bums on seats, it equates to approx 2.9m tickets hence the fact they have gone for big football stadiums in the main.
My view is this will backfire, particularly for the games featuring the smaller nations. Can you imagine Georgia versus Spain for example at stadium:mk? they will struggle to get more than a few thousand people in, and unless it is very keenly priced it will be very poorly attended.
Why not play these games in rugby towns like Northampton? Make it attractive from a price point to bring a family along, and you would be able to guarantee that thousands of stalwart rugby fans would support the tournament. They are unlikely to travel to Milton Keynes or Coventry to do so.
I understand Saints didn’t apply to be one of the stadiums, but the RFU should have wanted to play the smaller group games in proper rugby venues not soulless corporate football venues. Gloucester is the only exception, and if they have been included you have to wonder why Tigers haven’t? Even more infuriating is the inclusion of several non rugby towns like Southampton, Brighton and Derby. It is a real own goal by the RFU and will stick in the throats of plenty of rugby fans. They will peddle the theory that this about taking the game to new regions, well RFU what about the audience you currently have?
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