Saints look to Gatlin after drop disaster

The chief architect of Wasps' hattrick of Premiership titles is on a short-list of contenders to pick up the pieces now that the Saints' dream of building a championship team around the expensive Carlos Spencer will be taking them instead to Esher, Newbury and other First Divison backwaters.

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The search for a director of rugby tops the agenda at an emergency board meeting this morning.

"About five big international coaches have already shown an interest," said chairman Keith Barwell. "I shall be reporting to the board on those who have applied to help us along the road. There are lots of options, there will be changes and we will make decisions on what structure we are going to operate.

"I am very sorry that we have let the fans down but they can rest assured that we will build them a winning team. We need a coaching structure and a playing culture to make it happen. Once we get that, we will come back bigger and better." Head coach Paul Grayson, much admired throughout the Premiership, will almost certainly' be staying according to Barwell — albeit in a different role.

For a club which has never lacked ambition in recruiting the best, Gatland, 43, fits the bill, perhaps more so than three more with international credentials, Eddie Jones, Robbie Deans and Scott Johnson.

Intriguingly, Gatland has let it be known that he is looking for a new job because he is scheduled to be out of one in October. His contract with Waikato runs out then and with no Super 14 job open, the Kiwi will be open to Premiership offers.

The shattering reality of Northampton's fate, sealed by Worcester's noble recovery when they seemed to be almost down and out two months ago, will cost the club £2million. Jobs will go but Barwell vehemently rejects the other inevitable by-product of relegation, that his big-name players will be jumping into the lifeboat heading back to the Premiership.

"I will keep all my star players," he said. "I don't care whether they are happy or not. They are under contract and they are staying. The majority are happy to do so. We will be losing revenue of £2m and we will be slimming down some of our overheads but we don't want to be doing that with the players."

England wing Ben Cohen, a Saint all his life, is under contract but that will not stop other clubs offering him an escape from the First Division. He said: "This is something I never thought I'd experience. This is my club. I want to stay and get us back up."

At the end, when the players realised that their first home League win since before Christmas merely confirmed their exit, a tearful Cohen led the team on an apologetic walk round Franklin's Gardens at a funereal pace. Each player saluted the fans who stayed in their thousands to applaud the team, a magnificent gesture of solidarity considering the season they had been put through.

To have tweaked the last word of the club's battle hymn, When the Saints Go Marching In, would have been a shameful show of disloyalty, even though the Saints had by then gone marching out. Far from venting their anger, a section of the crowd managed to burst into a different song: Always look on the bright side of life.

Their team, as a rueful Grayson admitted, got what they deserved. Steve Thompson, the retired World Cup winner whose attack on Spencer revealed the back-biting of a divided dressing-room, called it a disaster which had been waiting to happen'.

How the players failed will be the subject of some straight boardroom talking. "I blame myself," said Barwell, whose policy of importing New Zealanders has exposed him to accusations from at least one former player of running a Southern Hemisphere pension scheme.

"I don't wear boots and I don't run on the pitch, but I am the guy who chooses the coaching team. I stand on the ship's bridge so I'll take the flak for that."

Grayson has no intention of going, even if it means being redeployed as backs coach as part of a new chain of command. He said: "Until someone comes and says 'off you go', I would not consider leaving this place."

The Playoffs

Saturday, May 5

1st semi-final

Gloucester v Saracens

(Kingsholm, 1pm)

2nd semi-final

Leicester v Bristol

(Welford Road, 5.30pm)

Saturday, May 12

The Final

(All matches live on Sky Sports)