Booth slams slow start

Booth: Frustrated

Northampton were very, very good for half an hour and we gave ourselves too much to do.

Toby Booth
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London Irish head coach Toby Booth was left to rue a poor first-half performance as his side missed the chance to return to the top of the Guinness Premiership after a 21-17 defeat at Northampton.

First-half tries from Juandre Kruger and scrum-half Lee Dickson powered Saints into a 21-8 lead, and despite an improved second half display from the Exiles, Northampton held on for yet another home win.

Speaking after the match, Booth admitted his side's lacklustre start to the match ultimately proved costly.

"We were a little bit misguided in the first 30 minutes and gave them too much too easily," admitted Booth.

Impressed

"You don't come to a place like this and expect things to be given to you. Northampton were very, very good for half an hour and we gave ourselves too much to do.

"It's something we are going to have to look at next season because it's been a familiar story for us on occasions and once again we've given ourselves a mountain to climb.

"The sign of the evolution of this side is sometimes learning to win a little bit uglier," added Booth.

Three second-half penalties from international full-back Delon Armitage did, at least, secure a losing bonus point and Booth was impressed with the character shown by his players.

He said: "I'm really delighted by the effort we've shown in the second half. We're in the losing bonus point tally again which shows that we're competitive but we've just got to be a bit smarter," added Booth.

Irish face Worcester next Saturday for their final match of the Premiership campaign still needing victory to make sure of a top-four play-off place.

Bad decisions

Northampton director of rugby Jim Mallinder agreed with Booth's assessment that it was "a classic game of two halves".

The Saints have lost at home only once in the last 25 months and Mallinder said: "We've got a really good record at home. We've beaten all the top six here.

"We're delighted. It was a terrific game of rugby for us, first half everything went well, set piece was good, the scrum was awesome and our general play was very good.

"The second half, London Irish came back at us, we probably didn't play quite as much as we should have done, a couple of bad decisions and the tide turned a little bit.

"But at the end of it we managed to hold on and I was pleased we showed discipline and patience in those last few minutes to win the game."