Heineken Cup

Northampton Saints' Ben Foden says that his team have shown the ability to play a physical or free-flowing game, and this adaptability will make them competitive in next year's Heineken Cup.

The Saints' are renowned for their fast-paced, running style of rugby but they delivered a exceptionally combative performance to beat a brutally physical Bourgoin side in the European Challenge Cup Final.

It wasn't a typical Northampton display, but an example of the type of rugby that they will have produce on occasion if Saints want to progress, according to the young utility back:

"It [the final] wasn't really my kind of game," admitted Foden.

"But the thing is, it is good to see we can win those type of games as well.

"Everyone has written us down as a team that likes to throw the ball around and score wonderful tries, but we won a cup final by kicking five goals, and sometimes that needs to be done."

Foden acknowledges that opposing teams will inevitably try to keep the game tight against Saints in an effort to negate their running strength, but that other sides should think twice about mixing it up physically with the Northampton pack.

"We've showed we are a team that's capable of doing it, and if a team wants to come down and mess around as Bourgoin did, our forwards are more than capable of handling that and putting it to them." Foden told the Northampton Chronicle.

"We did expect Bourgoin to be as they were in the final, and we have to accept that French clubs will play like that because they are lively and passionate, and they are very physical.

"So in the final we got ourselves ready for a physical battle and that's what came. We needed to show we could win that sort of game."

Foden, who was unluckily to miss out on an England call-up, suggests that his teams new-found versatility bodes well for their Heineken Cup aspirations:

"There are going to be games like that [tight, physical games] in the Heineken Cup next season." He said

"There might be the odd 6-3 result in our favour, but a win is a win and that is what we are there for."