Saints fly-half Myler prefers prizes to points

Stephen Myler remains adamant prizes are more important than points after moving up to second in Saints’ all-time scorers list.
TRY GUY - Stephen Myler dives over for his try against Leicester Tigers (picture by Linda Dawson)TRY GUY - Stephen Myler dives over for his try against Leicester Tigers (picture by Linda Dawson)
TRY GUY - Stephen Myler dives over for his try against Leicester Tigers (picture by Linda Dawson)

The fly-half grabbed a try and slotted a penalty against Leicester Tigers on Saturday, but ended up on the losing team as Northampton were thrashed 36-8 by their local rivals.

Myler, who joined Saints from Salford City Reds in 2006, is only behind Paul Grayson in the number of points scored for the Franklin’s Gardens outfit.

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Yet he has a long way to catch one of the club’s most iconic figures, sitting more than 1,300 points shy of Grayson’s tally of 2,786.

But Myler isn’t worried about setting records, instead he is interested in helping Saints end their 13-year wait for major silverware.

He said: “It’s obviously very nice to get to that position and a massive honour to have that many points for this great club.

“It’s something I’m proud of from an individual point of view, but it’s not going to be the be all and end all of my career.

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“I’d only been told I was getting close to it during an interview for one of the match programmes recently, but I wasn’t sure exactly when it was going to happen.

“But it’s not something I’ve been focusing on. Things like that – points scored, tries scored and other individual records – is a bonus to something else that happens on the field. If the team’s playing well and I’m kicking lots of goals then the points are going to come.

“Similarly you look at the Wasps game. We didn’t kick for goal with penalties, we went for the corners instead, and just thinking about points for myself is the wrong way to go about it.

“You have to do what’s right for the team in any given situation. If I score 20 points in a game then great, but if I score 10 and we have a fantastic game then I feel similarly. But points are nice when they come along.”

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Saturday’s east midlands derby defeat saw Saints’ four-game winning streak ended, though they remain fourth in the Premiership standings with three games to go.

And Myler knows he and his team-mates must improve if they are to achieve their league aims this season.

“Saturday wasn’t a good performance by us at all,” he said. “On the flip side Leicester were very good, which is why the scoreline was the way it was.

“Saturday was a reality check, but let’s not forget that before then we’d done well to get back into the play-off positions. We’ve got to be strong enough to come back from it, and the next three games gives us something to aim at. We know it’s in our hands and that’s a positive thing.

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“We’re moving on; we’re still in fourth spot, the Premiership play-offs are still in our sights and the Premiership title is still in our sights and that’s what we’re focusing on.

“Saturday showed us what can happen when we’re not on our game. We can’t be complacent; we’ve got to combat what the other team throws at us and be more accurate. When we do that we know we’re a match for anybody and that’s got to be our focus going forward.

“We want to be in the play-offs at the end of the season and then in the final after that. So we’re going to learn from it and push on.”