Northampton vs Exeter: Jim Mallinder to meet Eddie Jones to clear air over King's role

Northampton 8 Exeter 3

Northampton’s Mike Haywood is driven over for the only try of the match against Exeter yesterday (PA)

The Northampton director of rugby, Jim Mallinder, revealed he is to meet the England head coach, Eddie Jones, next week after Saints beat Exeter yesterday.

Mallinder accused the RFU of making an unofficial approach for his assistant, Alex King, and insisted after this 8-3 win that he still knew no more about Jones’ intentions after the Australian met with King before Christmas.

Jones, who has been in Australia for the holiday period, has identified King as his potential attack coach, as he finalises his back-room staff before the Six Nations.

Mallinder said the club had still not had any contact from the RFU and added: “Eddie is coming back next week and coming into the club to see me for a chat, so hopefully I will know a bit more then.”

Jones is believed to be keen on naming Dylan Hartley as England captain, but Mallinder admitted the 29-year-old has a fight on his hands to win a starting place at Northampton after picking Mike Haywood ahead of him and seeing the academy product score the only try of the game in an impressive performance.

Mallinder said: “Mike Haywood was a big call, to start him above Dylan – but again he showed what he can do. Mikey, over the last few years, has played well for us. When we won the Premiership, Mikey was a massive part of that and started when we won the final.

“We are absolutely delighted we have got two players like them and when Dylan came on he was excellent as well.”

Ben Foden said the Northampton players had held a meeting after the defeat by London Irish last week to analyse what was going wrong after losing four of the first seven Premiership games. Now he hopes this win will kick-start their league campaign as they prepare for the derby at Leicester next Saturday.

“There was a lot of talk about why things were not going right,” Foden said. “We stripped it back and looked at what Northampton is about. We outwork teams, get up the middle, and we did that for much of the game today.

“Our forwards were outstanding. Although we left a few tries out there, it is good to start the new year with a win.”

The victory moved Northampton to within two points of the Premiership play-off positions.

Exeter’s head coach, Rob Baxter, admitted his side were lucky to come away with a losing bonus point. “I think we stole a point,” said Baxter. “We were a bit off today for whatever reason. We were a little tentative early on and never found one way of getting ourselves in the game.”

Northampton: Try Haywood; Penalty Hanrahan; Exeter: Penalty Steenson. Northampton Foden; Collins, G Pisi, Burrell, North; Hanrahan, Fotuali’i; A Waller, Haywood, Hill, Lawes, Matfield, Gibson, Harrison, Dickinson. Replacements Hartley, E Waller, Denman, C Day, Paterson, L Dickson, Myler, Mallinder. Exeter Dollman; Nowell, Campagnaro, Whitten, Woodburn; Steenson, Chudley; Moon, Yeandle, Francis, Lees, Parling, Armand, Johnson, Waldrom. Replacements Taione, Rimmer, Low, Atkins, White, Lewis, Hooley, Short.

Referee JP Doyle (RFU).