Mallinder rues inconsistency
Northampton Saints director of rugby Jim Mallinder was forced to concede that they deserved to go out of the European Cup after a late Peter Horne try condemned them to defeat against the Glasgow Warriors on Saturday.
Mallinder's troops, currently fifth in the Premiership table, came into their final clash of the group stages knowing that a bonus-point victory could keep their slim qualification hopes alive.
But it was not to be as, despite running in three tries through Dom Waldouck, George Pisi and Ben Foden, the Saints fell to a 27-20 defeat against Glasgow.
And Mallinder admitted afterwards that his side's inconsistency had been the downfall of their European campaign.
"We showed that when we want to we can get performances; the win at Ulster away – the only visiting team to win at Ravenhill this season – was magnificent for us," he said.
"But to win these competitions you need to be more consistent. We won three games and lost three games and that isn't good enough.
"We came to try and get to the quarterfinals of the European Cup. We knew it was an outside chance, we needed four tries. We were close, but we weren't close enough."
