Flying high in September, Jim Mallinder was shot down in December. Northampton led the Premiership after their bonus point victory over Harlequins in the fifth round, but five successive league defeats since then saw them drop to 10th.
That run, together with three Champions Cup defeats out of three with 124 points, and 18 tries, conceded despite two of the matches being at Franklin’s Gardens, prompted the Saints’ board to call time on the Premiership’s longest serving director of rugby.
Saturday’s 43-32 home defeat by Ospreys, the Pro 14 strugglers who had not won away from home all season and were far from full strength, in a ground that was little more than half full marked an ignominious end for Mallinder, who after taking over in 2007 when the club had been relegated to the Premiership guided them to a European Cup final and the Premiership title in 2014, a year after they had been beaten by Leicester at Twickenham.
Under him, Northampton were wedded to success rather than style. Their high point coincided with the point in the game when territory rather than possession was the mantra. Strong in the set-pieces and blessed with hard-running forwards and centres, supplemented by controlling halfbacks and an accurate goal-kicker, the Saints were difficult to beat once they had established a lead, if less comfortable when they had to play catch-up.
Since winning the Premiership in 2014, their tale has been one of decline, slow at first, as rugby changed. It was less that they were unable to replace Samu Manoa, who was offered a lucrative contract by Toulon, as a ball-carrier, and more that they did not look comfortable in possession, a contrast in the last two seasons to Exeter.
They lost 12 Premiership matches last season and were beaten by a total of 97-23 by Leinster in the double-header weekend of the Champions Cup. Northampton got rid of their attack coach, Alex King, but that was like getting rid of the person who produced the paper for the architect to draw his plans on.
Mallinder’s success, and the club’s gratitude, remembering where they had been in the middle of the previous decade, earned him the board’s loyalty. “This has not been a decision that was taken lightly,” said the Northampton chairman John White in a statement on Tuesday announcing Mallinder’s departure. “The board and major shareholders felt the time was right for some change.”
A decision they refrained from last season could no longer be put off. Being beaten at home heavily by Leinster is one thing, but by Ospreys another. Northampton had six England players in their line-up, five of whom had played under Eddie Jones, but the collective spirit that had been a signal feature just a few years before was lacking.
Northampton said they would be seeking a “world-class” director of rugby to succeed Mallinder. Pat Lam, the club’s captain when they won the European Cup in 2000, would be a popular choice judging by supporters’ message boards, but the Saints are a year too late, unless they are prepared to buy him out of his contract at Bristol, who are on course to return to the Premiership next season.
Northampton want to appoint someone on the up rather than on the rebound. Football’s managerial carousel sees managers sacked by one struggling club and hired by another, as this season again shows. The names immediately linked with Mallinder’s job were familiar: Mike Ford, fired by Bath at the end of the 2015-16 season; Jake White, dismissed by Montpellier last May; Andy Robinson, removed by Bristol little more than a year ago; and Richard Cockerill, who has spent most of his rugby career at Leicester before having his contract at Welford Road terminated almost a year ago.
While Northampton are in decline, they look in need of a stimulus rather than a blood transfusion. The board’s trust in Mallinder was commendable at a time when knee-jerk reactions are more the norm, but perhaps he should have been encouraged to freshen up his back-up team: he has been more Arsène Wenger than Alex Ferguson in the use of lieutenants, and at a time of flux in the game that can lead to stasis: players who have been at the club a long time stop responding to the message while new recruits struggle to make sense of it.
Northampton have used five outside-halves in their last 10 matches. Injuries have been partly responsible for the changes, but is a position that has come to define their fall: the days when Stephen Myler could operate behind the gainline and either kick for position or launch big runners have passed. The need now is for variety and an inside-centre who, like a 10, can act decisively.
Which brings in Stuart Lancaster as a contender to succeed Mallinder. His four-year stint with England may have ended in the disappointment of the 2015 World Cup, the pressure of the occasion proving too much for management and players, but before that the team was on a steady upward line.
The foundation Lancaster laid allowed his successor Eddie Jones to start at a sprint. Lancaster spent time in the southern hemisphere analysing coaching methods after losing his job with England before taking charge of Leinster’s attack. He signed a new contract with the province earlier this year: its length was unspecified other than it was for at least this season.
It is unlikely Leinster would stand in Lancaster’s way should Northampton come calling. Leinster use the ball as Northampton have been trying to do and in his time in Dublin, Lancaster has helped advance the careers of backs like Garry Ringrose and Joey Carbery.
It raises the prospect of Lancaster linking up again with a player he dropped from the World Cup squad, the current England captain Dylan Hartley, but that would hardly be a problem. Lancaster should be in a top job again and Northampton need someone like him, upward looking.
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