Gardens rout was ‘like an unopposed team run’ for Leinster, says Saints star Wood

The Saints flanker admits he and his team-mates did not turn up as they fell to a 40-7 Heineken Cup defeat on home turf.

Leinster secured the massive success through a Luke Fitzgerald hat-trick and further scores from skipper Jamie Heaslip, Eoin Reddan and talisman Brian O’Driscoll.

For Saints it was a chastening experience, and Wood was pulling no punches in his assessment of the game.

“It was like an unopposed team run for them, much of that game,” he said. “We never asserted any pressure at any stage really.

“We threw the ball around in the hope of something coming off at the end but it wasn’t a constructed team performance, it was just ‘take a chance, we’ve lost the game’.

“Leinster are a quality side, they’ve got a great track record in Europe, a great pedigree, but they’re not 40 points better than us, the way they looked on Saturday.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with us, we just didn’t turn up. You’d have thought we’d have learned after (the big December defeat to Ulster at the Gardens) last year.

“We’re going to have to front up, have another long look at ourselves and come and give them a real game next week, show the real Northampton, because that was unrecognisable out there.”