Mallinder wants new signing Hanrahan to challenge Myler for Saints starting role

Hanrahan, who can also play at centre and full-back, will move to Franklin’s Gardens during the summer.

The 22-year-old has played more than 50 times for Munster, scoring 229 points in the process, and was last season named the provence’s young player of the year.

And Mallinder is now hoping he can provide competition for Myler, who has made the Saints fly-half spot his own during the past season and a half.

“He’s going to be a good signing for us next season,” said the Saints boss. “He’s an exciting young player, who has played a number of times for Munster in a lot of top class games.

“He’s a very good goalkicker, who’s probably not played as much as he’d hoped this season.

“He’s been playing at inside centre a fair bit so we think he’ll be brilliant for us here next season.

“We’ve got Stephen Myler, who is playing fantastically well, guiding the team at this moment, but we need a little bit of back-up in that area.

“We need somebody to push through and I’m sure JJ will do that.

“What we do need is probably a recognised goalkicker as well as Stephen - you probably need two of those in your squad.

We’ve still got some good young players coming through in Sam Olver and WIll Hooley, who are learning the game and have been out on loan a little bit.

“We’ll still see some more of those in the LV= Cup games coming up.”