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'One of the spectators said to me as he walked past the box that it's a part of the education'
Northampton boss Chris Boyd admitted Saints had received a “reality check” as they slumped to a 43-16 Heineken Champions Cup defeat to Leinster at Franklin’s Gardens.
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The Gallagher Premiership pacesetters leaked seven tries as they suffered a first loss in three European outings this season and failed to score in a one-sided second-half.
“One of the spectators said to me as he walked past the box that it’s a part of the education. There are not many sides in the Premiership that can step it up like that,” Boyd said.
“We were in the game at half-time but I got the feeling they probably had more petrol left in the tank than we did. It was a reality check.
“It’s a learning for us that there’s another level of physicality and fitness required if we’re going to compete with teams like Leinster.
“We have to be optimistic that we can close the gap. When you play the best sides in Europe, like Leinster are, having Owen Franks, Courtney Lawes, Dave Ribbands unavailable makes a difference.
“Leinster defended outstandingly well in that block. We didn’t ask enough questions of them and we were a little bit inaccurate because of the time pressure they put on us.”
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Leinster were hit by the loss of Johnny Sexton to injury, but they still swatted Northampton aside with ease to sound their title challenge.
Baxter departs from the 'it'll be tough' clichés #SALvEXE https://t.co/52BknjFb28
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) December 7, 2019
“Johnny has taken a bang to the knee and we’ll see how much damage has been done,” boss Leo Cullen said.
“We’re just trying to build cohesion with the guys coming back from the World Cup and that’s taking a bit of time.
“This was a positive step but we’ll get better each week and continue to improve.”
Meanwhile, Boyd, who revealed that Lawes will not return until later in the month because of a hamstring injury, categorically ruled out signing England scrum-half Ben Youngs from Leicester for next season.
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Reports have stated Youngs could be joining Tigers’ bitter East Midlands rivals.
Options narrowing for Folauhttps://t.co/rC1eKceuOK
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) December 7, 2019
“I have never spoken to Ben Youngs in my life and we have absolutely no interest in Ben Youngs at Northampton Saints. Is that reasonably clear?” Boyd said.
“We are looking for young guys with potential. Ben Youngs has been wonderful for Leicester and for England. Leicester are his club.
“I am not interested in recruiting a 30-year-old from another club in England. It’s not where we are going.
“You can put that one to bed. It is probably his agent looking for another 100k. Nothing to do with us.”
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Comments on RugbyPass
‘Salads don’t win scrums’ 😂 I love that.
19 Go to commentsCan’t wait for the article that talks about misogyny in Ireland. Somehow.
12 Go to commentsI would like to see a rule change, when the attacking team is held up over the try line, by allowing the defensive team to restart a goal line drop out releases the pressure for the defensive team, but what if the attacking team had to restart a tap 5m out from the defensive team it gives the attacking team to apply more pressure, there are endless options for the attacking side and it will keep the fans in suspence.
2 Go to commentsLess modern South African males predictably triggered.
12 Go to commentsMy heart is with Quins, but the head is convinced Toulouse have too much. Ntamack is back, his timing and wisdom has been missed.
1 Go to commentsWow, what a starting line up for the Sharks) Tasty up front,kremer vs Tshituka or venter …fiery ,,Lavannini ,,will he knobble etzebeth? Biggest game for belleau?
1 Go to commentsIt was rubbish to watch, Blues weren’t even present. Did what they had to do, nothing more. Should be better next week against canes.
1 Go to commentsI’ve just noticed that this match has an all-French refereeing team. Surely a game like this ought to have a neutral ref? Although looking at the BBC preview of the Saints game, Raynal is also down as reffing that - so there may be some confusion about who is reffing what.
1 Go to commentsIf Havili can play anywhere in the back line, why not first 5. #10.
11 Go to commentsThe dressing room had already left for their summer break before they ran out in Dublin that year, and that’s on the coach. Franco Smith has undoubtedly made progress, particularly their maul, developing squad players and increasing squad depth. And against a very tight budget too. That said they were too lightweight last year and got found out against both Toulon and Munster in consecutive games. Better this season so far but they’ve developed something of a slow start habit occasionally, most notably losing at home to Northampton who played them at their own game. Play offs will ultimately show whether there has been tangible progress on last year, or not…!
2 Go to commentsAustralian Rugby has been a disaster, by not incorporating learning from previous successful campaigns. QLD Reds 2011 - Waratahs 2014. Players, coaches and administrators appoint there representatives for scheduled meetings, organisation’s agreement’s assessments and correspondence. This why a unified Rugby Union under one entity works. Every Rugby nation has taken that path. Was most difficult in the Northern hemisphere with over 100 years of club rugby before the game become professional. Took a lot of humility for those unions to eventually work together.
7 Go to commentsThough Wilson’s sacking was pretty brutal, it wasn’t just down to that Leinster game; Glasgow had a lot of 2nd half collapses that season, in the URC and Europe, and only just scraped into the playoffs. Franco Smith has definitely been an improvement, some players are delivering far more than they did under Wilson.
2 Go to commentsjesus - that front 5!
1 Go to commentsShould be an absolute cracker of a game! Will be great to see DuPont & Ntamack in tandem once again🔥
1 Go to commentsBest team ever…. To have played? These guys are still pressure chokers. Came nowhere when it counted. What a joke
81 Go to commentsMusk defends anonymous terrorism, fascism, threats against individuals and children etc etc But a Rugby club account….lock ‘em up!!!
2 Go to commentsActually the era defining moment came a few years earlier. February 2002 to be precise, when Michael D Higgins as finance minister at the time introduced his sports persons tax relief bill to the dial. As the politicians of the day stated “It seems to be another daft K Club frolic born in Kildare amongst the well-paid professional jockeys with whom the Minister plays golf” and that the scheme represented “a savage uncaring vision of Ireland and one that should be condemned”. The irfu and Leinster would be nowhere near the position they are in today without this key component of the finances.
5 Go to commentsIt is crystal clear that people who make such threats on line should be tried and imprisoned. Those with responsibility in social media companies who don’t facilitate this should be convicted. In real life, I have free speech to approach someone like Reinach and verbally threaten him. I am risking a conviction or a slap but I could do it. In the old days, If someone anonymously threatened someone by letter the police would ask and use evidence from the postal system. Unlike the Post, social media companies have complete instant and legal access to the content in social media. They make money from the data, billions. Yet, they turn a blind eye to terrorism, Nazi-ism and industrial levels of threats against individuals including their address and childrens schools being published online all from ananoymous accounts not real people. They claim free speech. Free speech for anonymous trolls/voilent thugs threatening people under false names? The fault is with the perps but also social media companies who think anonymous personas posting death threats constitutes free speech.
2 Go to commentsSo if this ain’t the best Irish team ever then who exactly is? I don’t remember any other Irish team being this good & winning a series in the Land of the Long White Cloud. Yes I may rip them often for 8 X QF RWC exits & twice not even making it to the QF, but they’re a damn good team who many think can only improve, including me!
81 Go to commentsNot a squeek out of Leinster for weeks about this match. So quiet. The first team have been quitely building for this encounter under Nienaber’s direction. All fresh, all highly motivated. They are expecting a season’s best performance from Northhampton. They will match that. They will be fresher and apparently they will have 80,000 out of the 83,000 shouting for them. I do expect Northhampton to turn up big time. Not to be missed. On a tangent it is evident how the loss of a few Premiership teams has in some respect helped other Premiership teams and England. More quality over less teams makes the teams better, which has a knock on effect on England. Not the only factor contributing to England’s rise but one of them.
5 Go to comments