NORTHAMPTON’S fallen stars will be ordered to stay next season to repair the damage they have done to a great club after seeing the nightmare of relegation become reality despite this victory.
The Saints have called an emergency meeting this morning to map out a future outside England’s elite. It is likely to include a new director of rugby, installed above coach Paul Grayson, and administrative job cuts.
But unlike Leeds, whose squad scattered when they went down last season, Northampton will not allow their internationals to leave.
Ultimately, they landed the Saints in this hole by winning only six Premiership matches all season, and they will be instructed to haul the club out of Division One.
“We will keep all our star players. They are on contract and I don’t care whether they are happy or not. They are staying,” said Northampton chairman Keith Barwell.
“We will be losing revenue of about £2million and we will have to slim down overheads. That’s the price you pay for relegation.
“But we don’t want to do that on the playing side. We want to win National One to get back but we also want a good enough squad to survive in the Premiership.
“We will all be back next year stronger and better for this. I’m looking forward to some good local derbies with Bedford and Coventry and a few tinnies in Cornwall.”
But whether the likes of Ben Cohen will be looking forward to long coach journeys to the far south-west is another matter.
Three-and-a-half years ago he was parading the World Cup around Franklin’s Gardens; this morning with 12 months on his contract he is faced with the prospect of Launceston away next season.
The England wing was still in tears afterwards while captain Bruce Reihana made a valiant pledge to the 13,500 supporters to lead the side back into the Premiership and team-mates spoke of their heartache and determination to right the wrongs.
But like so much from the Saints this season, words and actions were out of synch. Already the ball of wool is beginning to unravel.
Northampton’s player of the year, Mark Robinson, who scored the try which would have saved the Saints but for events at Sixways, spoke of a feeling of having lost a loved one. But it was not long before the realities hit home.
“I hope players won’t leave but I imagine there will be a few phone calls to agents,” he said.
“The club should make a commitment to us. They should not ask us to take a pay cut – we show our loyalty by putting our bodies on the line. We have to be offered two-year contracts so there is something beyond next season in Division One.”
A contract extension as a reward for being relegated? Interesting. One consequence is likely to be the collapse of the move for Springbok flanker Joe van Niekerk, who does not want to play in Division One.
The likes of Chris Ashton, Euan Murray, Barry Everitt and Ben Johnston, who have already signed for next season, will just have to lump it.
Saints do have a parachute payment of £2.5million at their disposal – 10 times that of promotion rivals such as Doncaster, where London Irish wing Justin Bishop is heading after ending his 17-year career with the Exiles by kicking the final conversion of Saturday’s match.
They should, like Harlequins and Leeds before them, bounce straight back up.
Grayson, according to Barwell, will “almost certainly” stay but the Northampton owner revealed “about five big international coaches have already asked who is having his parking space”.
All Blacks coach Graham Henry, expected to step down after the World Cup, and Waikato’s Warren Gatland are likely to be on any shortlist as well as Kiwi Robbie Deans.
Grayson, still dignified and honest, would accept any such demotion without a fuss.
“I haven’t an ego; I just want to be good at my job,” he said. “I’m an inexperienced coach and have made mistakes but I want to stay. What hurts most is that some people will lose jobs.
“But as long as the fallout from this is that Northampton resolve why they have been nearly-men for so long then it will have been worthwhile.”
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