Nick Cain: North star needs help to twinkle for Saints

When it comes to buying marquee players for the new season no one in the Premiership has done a better job than Northampton. The acquisition of two of the biggest stars of the 2013 Lions tour of Australia, George North and Alex Corbsiero, is a huge coup for the Saints, and their director of rugby, Jim Mallinder.
If you add the livewire Samoa scrum-half Khan Fotuali’i to the mix there appears to be a very potent brew in the making at Franklin’s Gardens, with the rebuild up front and in the backs promising to pack a hell of a punch.
After announcing his arrival on the Test scene as an 18-year-old with a two-try debut for Wales against South Africa in 2010, North has achieved superstar status faster than any professional British player since Jonny Wilkinson.
He also rivals Tony O’Reilly – the legendary Irish wing of the 1955 and 1959 Lions tours – as the wing to have made the greatest impact on his debut Lions tour. North’s brilliant 60 metre try in the 23-21 first Test victory over Australia in Brisbane, in which he left three Wallaby tacklers in his tracks, confirmed him as one of the best strike runners in Test rugby.
However, it is not just the speed, balance and power of the 6ft 4ins (1.92m), 17st 6lb (110kg) Welsh finisher that makes him such a sensational talent. North’s workrate off the ball is outstanding, and overall it explains why he won his battle with Israel Folau, the Aussie cross-code giant opposite him.
Although Folau’s last-ditch tackle denied North a second try on his Lions Test debut, as the series went on it was the Welshman who imposed himself on the Wallabies, with his second Test fireman’s lift on his opposite number an iconic moment.
Where Folau limped out of the third Test with a hamstring tear soon after being dump-tackled by North, the Welsh left wing moved into top gear. When he rounded off Leigh Halfpenny’s great approach work with the touchline sprint to score his second Lions Test try, no one was in any doubt about the significance of his contribution to not just the 41-16 rout, but to the series victory as a whole.
Corbisiero’s contribution was equally significant. His close-range try after just two minutes of the Sydney showdown gave the Lions a dream start, but it was his command performance at the scrum that really did the damage. The pressure he applied on Ben Alexander for the first 50 minutes of the first Test and the opening 25 minutes of the decisive third encounter – helping to squeeze five penalties or free kicks out of the retreating Wallaby pack – put the Lions in the driving seat.
Corbisiero will be just as important in getting the Saints scrum on the front foot following the departures of Saone
Tonga’uhia and Brian Mujati to Racing Metro – but it is what the Saints do with the ball, and whether they can maximise on North’s prodigious talent, that is the million pound question.
The two key components to that are the new Northampton backs coach, Alex King – the former Wasps and England No.10 arriving from Heineken Cup runners-up, Clermont Auvergne – and the Saints long standing fly-half, Stephen Myler.
During Myler’s seven-year stint at Franklin’s Gardens he has often come under fire for being more of a kicking fly-half than a distributor who plays on the gain-line. What’s more, his lack of attacking guile has seen him bumped off the Saints fly-half carousel for sustained periods in recent years by both Shane Geraghty and Ryan Lamb.
Lamb’s move to Leicester this summer has left Myler alone in the Saints fly-half command module. To be fair, Myler finished last season strongly, helping Northampton to the Premiership final, and he was rewarded with his first England cap from the bench in Argentina last month. However, the pressure on him to expand his repertoire this season will be intense.
North needs to be fed. He is a match-winner almost without peer on the world stage, and Saints fans will not be happy to pay the highest season ticket prices in the league to see him stranded without any good ball.
So far, King has been the consummate diplomat, saying that Myler’s, “a really good player”, who he is excited to work with. However, Myler’s default position in a tight corner is to drop deep and kick rather than play into the teeth of the gale, and King will earn his salary multiple times over if he can change that mindset.
Myler may have the capability to adapt and confound his critics, but the concern for Saints is that there are not many options at No.10 if he cannot.
Although Fotuali’i has played there, most of the 31-year-old’s elite rugby has been at scrum-half, and the only other fly-half on Northampton’s books is Glenn Dickson, a former Otago fly-half who was unable to secure a Super 15 contract.
Mallinder and company have bought some superb talent, and the prospect of seeing North and Ben Foden counter-attacking in tandem is one to savour. However, Saints fans are also entitled to ask why some of the dosh spent not just this summer, but over the last five seasons, was not directed at a marquee fly-half.