Dan Biggar pledges loyalty to Northampton after Jim Mallinder’s exit

Dan Biggar and Harry Mallinder have given assurances they will not turn their backs on Northampton, according to the club’s chief executive, Mark Darbon, after Jim Mallinder was sacked following a decade as director of rugby.

Darbon refused to deny the former Bath head coach Mike Ford is in the frame to take over on an interim basis while Northampton look to appoint a long-term successor to Mallinder in time for the start of the next season.

The chief executive, who has been at the club for only four months, did reveal that he received a phone call on Tuesday from Biggar, who arrives next season from the Ospreys on a deal thought to be worth £650,000 a year, and that he had also sought talks with Mallinder junior.

Biggar was at Franklin’s Gardens last weekend as a television pundit to watch Northampton lose 43-32 against the Ospreys in front of only 8,100 people. Darbon said: “I spoke to Dan yesterday, he was here on Saturday, and he is incredibly excited. He saw a disappointing performance from us in a venue that wasn’t full. He is incredibly committed and itching to get here and get on with it. Nothing has changed over the last couple of days.”

Harry Mallinder recently signed a new contract until 2020, but while Mike Ford’s departure from Bath in May 2016 precipitated George Ford’s move away from the Rec last summer, Darbon is confident the 21-year-old Mallinder will not look to follow his father through the exit door.

“I’ve spoken to Harry yesterday. As you’d expect, it is a unique situation for him,” Darbon said. “I think he always realised at some point in his professional career he would be playing without his father as his director of rugby or coach. Harry is delighted to have re-signed here and is really looking forward to the future. We were delighted to hear that.”

Mallinder’s sacking on Tuesday has led already to a number of expressions of interest for the job but Ford, who is due to take charge of the Dallas Griffins in Major League Rugby in the new year, has emerged as a frontrunner to come in until the end of the current campaign, having taken on a similar role at Toulon last season.

Asked about Ford, Darbon said: “A lot of names have been mentioned already. We’re focused on bringing someone in ultimately who can thrive in the conditions here.”

The former All Blacks assistant coach Wayne Smith is another name to emerge and would be a huge hit with the fans following his spell at the club between 2001 and 2004.

“Wayne is held in massive affection among the supporters of this club and the people that are involved in an operational level,” Darbon said. “We are at the start of the process so I don’t want to rule anyone out at this stage. We would like to have Jim’s successor in place as we go into next season.”

Darbon also insisted Northampton’s financial status – they announced a first loss in 16 years last April, of £1.2m – will not prohibit the club’s search, adding he is likely to consult former and current Saints players including the England captain, Dylan Hartley.

“We’re not alone in facing financial challenges as a club, 11 out of the 12 clubs lost money last year,” Darbon said. “I have regular dialogue with Dylan as well as a lot of the senior players. We would be foolish not to elicit some opinion or perspective of those guys.

“We are incredibly lucky here. That ‘Saints family’ is widespread and I think we would be mad not to talk to, in one form or another, our trusted advisers.”