Not so long ago, Jim Mallinder was brought into to be the director of Rugby at Northampton Saints, just after they were relegated from the Premiership. At the time of the relegation there were two significant names that were part of the squad Soaine Tongaweia and Dylan Hartley. Tongaweia at the time was carrying quite a lot of excess baggage and Hartley was getting himself into quite a bit of trouble on the field for some very sill behavior (nice to know that has not changed).
Mallinder came in, stood his ground with Ben Cohen over the club captaincy and set about rebuilding the Saints. As he sits they are now on top of the table. This surely must be the season Mallinder finally tops the table and leads a club to the titele. You can’t help but admire what he has done at the club.
Firstly, let’s look at the players that he brought in and that took the Saints back into the Premiership. Hartley now stands imperious as probably the best Hooker in the game; Soaine after a number of very faithful years has taken the big packet in France. Stephen Myler the Rugby League convert has now stepped up to be the king pin at the club. Chris Ashton had a number of successful seasons for England and the Saints before he disappeared to the Saracens. Ben Foden went on to be the club’s first choice Scrum Half and ended up being England’s first choice Full Back, it will be nice to have him back next season. Tom Wood was another who would make the journey down from Worchester along with James Downey for Newcastle and help build one impressive engine room.
There have been others along the way, and there will probably be a lot more after that. Mallinder appears to have built one of the most successful Academies in the Premiership, save only that of Harlequins. Their ability to recruit the right person for the role seems to have gone beyond the playing field and affected the staffing set up as well. The arrival of Alex King appears to have been a master stroke for Mallinder and brought to his side a level of attacking physicality that has not been seen in the Premiership before.
The factory line that has now produced Courtney Lawes, Luther Burrell, Sam Dickinson, Glenn Dickson, and Jamie Elliot only seems to be getting stronger with time.
But Mallinder must be complemented for his desire not to stand still. After underperforming last year, he seems to have torn up the playbook, rulebook, hell any book he could get his hands on and get back to basics. Talk of topless mauling session lead by Dorian West bring a smile to the face but there is definitely something about this coaching team that refuses to say what we are doing is working fine. Most could be forgiven for thinking so. But not this club.
They seem to excel in finding ways to challenge the norm and breakdown the technique and skills they are really looking for to make their power game work so well, and then work on how to refine them to the point where these guys are capable of so much more.
And this has started to have an impact on the England team, Lawes has been outstanding all 6 Nations and Hartley has been one of the few to actually challenge Mike Brown for Man of the Match every game. Bring into this Tom Woods and you start to feel the heart of the Saints beating within England. Add in Burrell into the mix and you see almost a third of the English starting line up are Saints.
If Dickson and Dickinson can push on and grab the starting spots then I think we’ll really start to feel the force that Mallinder has created start showing itself for England.
I can’t help but say that when England were recruiting for the top job I really wanted Mallinder to take it. He comes across as one of the few top flight coaches that seem to genuinely want to improve himself year on year, something that has not always shown itself in previous England regimes.
The decision to bring in King and the new ideas that seem to be flowing through the coaching team as a result looks inspired. It can be quite a tough call to make that level of decision on a coach, and certainly King seems to have had a significant influence on the Saints.
Stuart Lancaster has shown himself to be a student of the game and the decision to take Rob Baxter and others to Argentina in the summer to learn new tricks again seems to be paying off. I just can’t help thinking that he and Mallinder should find a way to get Jim involved in England. Certainly Lancaster has shown humility by exploring the world for coaching talent to help him build the next England World Cup winning team, and he recognizes that he doesn’t have all the answers.
I can’t help but think that a little visit down to the Franklin’s Gardens training paddock during pre-season, would teach him a thing or two about the magic that is happening down there right at this minute. I can’t help but hope that they are top of the pile come then end of the season, it would be just rewards for Mallinder and his team.
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