Murphy: 'We need to take our medicine'

Embattled Leicester Tigers’ coach Geordan Murphy says his side need to ‘take their medicine’ following this afternoon’s 36-13 loss at Northampton Saints.

The Saints were struck what looked like a serious blow before kick-off when Dan Biggar, Courtney Lawes and Owen Franks all failed late fitness tests.

But the hosts took it in their stride, reshuffled and put the Tigers to the sword to move top of the Gallagher Premiership table.

All Black Matt Proctor grabbed two tries, but it was the late call-ins Alex Moon in the second row, Ehren Painter at prop and James Grayson at No.10 that really impressed.

There was not much to cheer for the Tigers, who stay second bottom in the standings with only the Saracens and their 35-point deduction below them.

And head coach Geordan Murphy admitted his side were comfortably second best.

“We just didn’t get our game going at any part of the day,” he said.

“I thought at 10-10 we had some opportunities in Saints territory and they defended stoically.

“We didn’t attack as we’d have liked and we wasted some opportunities to build up some pressure.

MATCH REPORT: Saints go 4-for-4 against Tigers https://t.co/6Es9Lm2mXi

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“Fair play to Saints, when they were given chances they scored and everything stuck for them.

“I felt we could claw it back, but it was a huge moment and it really took the wind out of our sails.

“We’ve got to learn the lessons and look at ourselves. Saints performed at a higher level and were the better team.

“We started to chase and they just kept turning us. Our form needs to be better. A lot of things need to function for us and we need to take our medicine.”

The pre-match formalities in Cardiff before Wales versus the Barbarians didn't earn universal approval https://t.co/4iGQypVapG

— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) November 30, 2019

Northampton director of rugby Chris Boyd was hugely impressed by the Saints’ late reinforcements.

“We won and got five points, and we played better in more patches than we did badly,” said Boyd.

“We lost 260 international caps to injury but Alex Moon came of age in the second row – he was outstanding.

“Ehren Painter continued to make great progress and put in a good effort in the scrum.

“Jimmy Grayson got a call this morning to say Biggs had woken up with a bad foot and he might have to jump in the game and for him to come in that late and run the ship was a fantastic effort.

“Great credit to our young guys. They had 10 or 11 internationals in their team and it was a real good challenge for us as a Northampton Saints squad. The question was about whether we could step up and do the job, and the guys did that.”

– Press Association