Match report - Northampton 19 - 15 Glasgow: Jones short of answers as Hartley plays on eggshells

There was a time, not so very long ago, when Stuart Lancaster and his fellow England coaches were keen to base an entire World Cup game plan around Northampton and their abrasive form of claustrophobic bullying, as patented by such mean-eyed, flint-hearted, ultra-physical forwards as Dylan Hartley, Courtney Lawes and Tom Wood. We can take it as read that the new red-rose hierarchy under Eddie Jones are searching elsewhere for their inspiration – that elsewhere being Saracens, the Premiership pacesetters.

Northampton just about kept their European Champions Cup agenda on the table by beating the reigning Pro 12 champions on a perishing night in the East Midlands, but as the heat they generated in doing so – or rather, the lack of heat – was entirely in keeping with the prevailing temperature, it is difficult to see them going very much further in this tournament. Indeed, there is no guarantee they will find their way into the knockout stage, despite this rather fortunate victory against gifted opponents who played far more imaginatively with ball in hand.

Harry Mallinder, son of the Premiership club’s rugby director Jim, pulled things round with the last play of the game, taking a scoring deflection from George North, after the Wales and Lions Test wing had beaten Finn Russell in the air following a characteristically precise cross-field “bomb” from the ever-reliable Stephen Myler. Much more of this and tongues will soon be wagging once again about selectors and their offspring. The Farrells with England, the Fords at Bath, the Youngs at Wasps… whatever it is with these union families, it runs in the blood.

Not that Mallinder Senior was prepared to bang the drum too hard on behalf of his heir. “Harry? Aaah… it’s about winning the game, first and foremost, but I was pretty chuffed to see him score,” he said, a trifle uncomfortably. “How much potential does he have? It’s too early to say, I think. He’s been learning the game a long time now, and he’s still learning. He dropped one ball out there, didn’t he? He’ll be practising when he gets home tonight.”

It was a sweet outcome all round for the Mallinders, but what Jones, the recently appointed England boss, really wanted to take home from this contest was confirmation of a full-blooded return to form from Hartley ahead of the opening Six Nations meeting with Scotland at Murrayfield in 19 days’ time, not least because the New Zealand-born hooker has been widely touted as his preferred choice as captain.

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If truth be told, the available evidence was a long way short of conclusive. The jury – and Hartley has been up before his fair share of those over the course of a tempestuous career – remains resolutely out on the subject of an immediate international recall.

If there was nothing much wrong with his set-piece work, there were enough errors of the atypical variety to worry Jones during his return trip down the M1. Hartley was turned over on the carry at the first ruck, guilty of a horribly public missed tackle on Glasgow’s magnificent lock Leone Nakarawa, and managed to flick an interception pass to Russell at the back end of the first half that could have proved extremely costly to his team’s cross-border ambitions. What was more, he was substituted well shy of the hour mark – a sure sign that his fitness is short of the optimum.

More alarming still was the overwhelming sense of calm about his rugby. Hartley will never be one of life’s pacifists but, by his standards, his rugby here was too conciliatory for words. This is the bind in which he finds himself. To perform at his best, he needs to operate at the very edge of rugby acceptability, with the accompanying level of risk. When he treads carefully, he is a shadow of himself – and thanks to his desperate disciplinary record, he is currently playing on eggshells.

There was nothing much to write home about in Lawes’ game, either, and he will have to push very hard indeed to beat his rival England locks – Joe Launchbury, George Kruis and the uncapped Maro Itoje – to a Calcutta Cup starting place. The eye-catching engine-room performances here were delivered by Nakarawa, whose athleticism was off the scale, and Jonny Gray, who may well make life extremely difficult for the red-rose pack in Edinburgh.

Northampton bagged three tries, which was three more than Glasgow managed to register, but two of them came from common or garden line-out drives – precisely the kind of scores that are in danger of giving union a bad name, in view of the fact that they are all but impossible to defend legally. No sport can afford to contemplate a situation where one side has a “put the opposition in jail free” card. Sooner or later, something will have to be done.

At least Mallinder Junior’s try had some artistic merit about it, and while his father was not prepared to say so, the boy clearly has some talent. Playing out of position following Tom Collins’ nasty aerial collision with Stuart Hogg’s knee – the wing went from bright spark to spark out in an instant – the newcomer was the very picture of assurance. If only his elders and betters were equally on top of their games.

Northampton: Tries Harrison, Day, Mallinder; Conversions Hanrahan, Myler. Glasgow: Penalties Russell 4, Hogg.

Northampton B Foden; T Collins (H Mallinder, 25), G Pisi, L Burrell, G North; JJ Hanrahan (S Myler, 52), L Dickson (capt); A Waller (E Waller, 63), D Hartley (M Haywood, 56), P Hill (G Denman, 72), C Lawes, C Day, J Gibson, T Wood, T Harrison (J Fisher, 12-20 and 56).

Glasgow S Hogg; S Lamont, A Dunbar, S Johnson, L Jones (T Naiyaravoro, 57); F Russell, A Price; G Reid (A Allan, 64), P MacArthur (S Mamukashvili, 61), S Puafisi (Z Fagerson, 52), L Nakarawa, J Gray (capt), R Wilson, C Fusaro (T Swinson, 67), A Ashe (S Favaro, 57).

Referee R Poite (France).