North Owes Saints Some Words Of Explanation

North Owes Saints Some Words Of Explanation

George North has spent the week stewing in silence over a juicy accusation concerning his conspicuous absence from Northampton’s ‘pathetic’ home beating by Sale.

Alan Gaffney, the veteran Australian parachuted on to the already burning deck after Jim Mallinder’s sacking, suggested that North missed the match not because of an injury but because he didn’t want to play. Had there been a mistake or a misunderstanding, the Saints had ample time to rectify the matter and say so.

Despite the lack of anything remotely resembling an admission that they got it wrong, those who pay North’s wages may still have wondered if there hadn’t surely been some sort of mistake. Hadn’t their favourite Welsh Lion pledged to keep giving everything for the Saints’ cause?

In confirming his Welsh homecoming last November with effect from the end of the season, North left nobody in any doubt as to what the faithful could continue to expect from him. The Saints may have been plagued by a rotten set of results but according to the Boy George everything in Franklin’s Gardens seemed to be in a perpetual state of bloom.