Tom Wood has questioned the commitment of his team-mates after Northampton suffered the latest indignity of their horrible start to the season, conceding 40 points at hitherto struggling Castres.
“I’ve got to take my share of responsibility for it, as captain, but it’s across the board. If a player’s not up for it, there’s not much you can say or do,” Wood said.
“It’s a harsh criticism to level, because I’m sure individually people felt as if they were trying hard, but if you’re just a couple of per cent off the pace, there just isn’t that edge. Most games you can at least take some positives from and you can build on something but this one there’s very little to take from it. We were never in it. We were nilled for most of it.
“I think our best bet is just to park it and put it down as a bad experience. I hate to admit but I think the fundamental problem was energy. The desperation that we brought last week we didn’t have this. I’m ashamed to admit that. Tactics and everything else are irrelevant if you don’t bring energy and commitment.”
Wood suggested last week, after Northampton’s rousing win against Montpellier, that Alex King, the attack coach who was dismissed the day before, had been made a scapegoat for the poor performances of the players. Certainly, on this form, the firing of an attack coach comes across as little more than the shifting of a sunlounger from starboard to port as the ship goes down. Here their basics deserted them; a pack featuring the returning Dylan Hartley and Courtney Lawes was dismantled by opponents who are hardly setting their domestic competition alight, sitting in a lowly 10th place – one spot below where the Saints sit in theirs.
This may be turning into a season from hell for Northampton but more worrying is that it is not unusual in the context of their recent form in this competition. Since they reached the final in 2011 they have suffered at least one defeat each season that might be accounted a humiliation. True, this one was particularly bad – the most points they have conceded since Munster put 51 past them the season after they reached that final – but the implosion they suffered in the second half at the Millennium Stadium that day seems to have set the tone for their future in Europe.
They conceded 41 points at Castres in the 2011-12 season as well but at least they scored 22 in reply. Here they remained tryless until the 72nd minute – in other words long after the contest had ceased to mean anything. “I’ll be honest. By the last 20 minutes of that game I just couldn’t wait for the final whistle,” Wood said.
“It didn’t even feel as if we were playing for pride at that stage. At half-time we had a mountain to climb but we still believed we could win it with the wind behind us. If we could get that first score, come out energised after a rocket up our backside, we could be in the game. But when they scored first in the second half the game was pretty much gone. The subs made an impact but it was too little, too late. Castres were playing sevens by then and we were chasing shadows.”
On Friday the Saints host Gloucester. It is safe to say there will be a reaction, as there was the week before when Montpellier visited after the defeat at Harlequins and the subsequent loss of King. Northampton need to find a way to summon these reactions without preceding humiliations. If not, they will be parting company with more than just an attack coach.