Saints looking good but easy win leaves much to be desired
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Northampton are playing attacking rugby which combines skill, speed, flair, and precision, and their hammering of Bayonne on Friday night at Franklin's Gardens – combined with a great fightback to beat Exeter away last weekend – has quite rightly pushed many of their players into the England spotlight.
Wing Tommy Freeman and full-back George Furbank are at the front of the queue, and fly-half Fin Smith and wing Ollie Sleightholme are also lighting it up alongside young flanker Tom Pearson, who scored a hat-trick of tries against a hapless Bayonne outfit.
However, good as Northampton were, Bayonne were about as resistant as a pin-cushion – and the devaluation of the European Cup as a competition which is meant to pit the best against the best was laid bare in the nine-try 61-14 rout.
Saints supporters were delighted, but too many of these semi-opposed processions will see the currency of the European Cup decline, and empty spaces in the stands will follow. There will be some good games in the European Cup going into the Round of 16, and possibly during it, but the overall direction of travel is a competition which has been padded out with too many also-ran fixtures.
The squad rotation mentioned in this column last weekend is becoming rife as coaches hedge with team selection in trying to balance the demands of domestic and European competition.
It shows that rugby union is still trying to get to grips with the reality that to be a successful pro sport you need cups and leagues that are fiercely competitive in every fixture every weekend, not once in every two or three matches.
