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Jim'll fix it for away win

Image: Mallinder: Hoping for an away win at Bath

Jim Mallinder is hoping Northampton can start replicating their home form on the road after beating Harlequins 23-13.

Saints go marching on after 10th straight win on home soil

Northampton head coach Jim Mallinder hopes his side can start replicating their home form on the road after humbling Harlequins at Franklin's Gardens. The Saints made it 10 straight wins in front of their own fans with a 23-13 victory over their high-flying opponents. Second half-tries from Jon Clarke and James Downey helped the hosts turn around a 13-6 half-time deficit in the Guinness Premiership clash. Now Mallinder, who was particularly pleased with how the scrum went against Quins, has demanded a repeat performance away at Bath next weekend.

Good run

"We're on a good run, but we haven't been getting the results in the Premiership so we need to keep the momentum and get something at Bath next week," he said. "We're still learning lessons in the Premiership all the time. We're playing some good rugby at home but we still need to be smarter on the road. "It's a good start to this period of games. We were pleased with the scrum and how that went because it was vital that we slowed Harlequins down. "Dylan Hartley is competitive and aggressive and he's learning to look after himself. He's still young but you can see he's a good player. "It's very nice to win and it's even better to win against a side who are playing so well at the moment." Harlequins director of rugby Dean Richards felt his side had looked tired having come into the game off back-to-back wins over Stade Francais.
Rest
The former England international also defended his decision to rest scrum-half Danny Care. Replacement Andy Gomarsall was sin-binned in the second 40 minutes. "We had to rest Danny at some stage as he's part of the Elite Squad," said Richards. "We felt today was the right day to do it, as it has been a bruising few weeks for us and we can't just run him into the ground. "I think we looked a bit tired. On the day we were a bit jaded. It's been a busy five weeks with some very difficult games and we didn't perform to the best of our ability. "I don't think we were in control first half. Both sides didn't play well and it was a poor game of rugby. "They came out more fired up in the second half and a couple of things went right for them. They played well and we have to take this onboard and learn from it."