Salary cap costing English clubs European glory tilt

Guinness Premiership interest in the quarter-finals was extinguished when Northampton fell to a 33-19 defeat at Thomond Park.

Munster summoned up their vast European experience to set up a last-four showdown at Biarritz, with Ronan O'Gara inspiring a decisive final quarter that led to the unfairly lopsided scoreline.

For all the two-time champions' brilliance, Mallinder claims a variety of factors conspire to hamstring Saints and their English counterparts before the competition even begins.

Chief among them is a restrictive salary cap that is forcing Saints to trim their squad next season, but Mallinder also highlights relegation from the Premiership as a telling factor.

"English clubs are still capable of winning the Heineken Cup but it's becoming increasingly difficult," said the director of rugby.

"The problems facing English clubs are certainly there and are quite evident. It's tough because the Premiership is tough.

"These days we only have limited squads because of the salary cap and our players are in action every week.

"If you want to keep your best players, which we do, you've got to pay them the going rate.

"If you do that then there's only a certain number of players you can have within your squad.

"Next year we'll be reducing the size of our squad from 34 to 31 because we have to.

"Our players have improved so we must pay them more money, hence we need to reduce our numbers.

"I'm not sure how other clubs see it but for us it's the Premiership that comes first.

"We get through our league matches and then start planning for the Heineken Cup – you just can't prepare any earlier than the week before.

"If there was no relegation you'd certainly look at changing our priority and how we use our players.

"Having got the team up for a Premiership game, it's then hard to lift them up again for Heineken Cup rugby.

"I'd say we're handicapped before we even start the competition."

The semi-finals will be contested by two Irish provinces and two French clubs, which Mallinder believes offers a fair reflection of the balance of power in European rugby.

In particular, defending champions Leinster and perennial achievers Munster channel all their resources into the tournament.

"Without doubt the priority of the Irish teams is the Heineken Cup," said Mallinder.

"They can rest players in the Magners League and really go for it at the right times.

"France have the financial muscle – they have big squads and double our budgets on the playing side.

"There are still some good sides in the Premiership. You could look at some of the results in Europe and say it's slightly unlucky that other teams didn't qualify."

Saints saw their dream of completing the treble ruined by a spectacular display from O'Gara, who used his in-depth knowledge of the Thomond Park conditions to put on a kicking masterclass.

Munster stormed the try-count 4-1 but Saints entered half-time 16-13 up thanks to Jon Clarke's try and the flawless place kicking of Stephen Myler. Then O'Gara's touchfinders pounded them into submission in the final 20 minutes.

Saints must now renew their assault on the Premiership – they currently sit second – and Mallinder insists they left Limerick with their self-belief intact despite the result.

"The experience of playing at Munster will do us a lot of good," he said.

"We'll always lose games but good sides bounce back. We're not down and out, thinking that we're miles away.

"We believe we're a young side on the up and we're confident that we will become a consistent player in Europe."

Ospreys revealed their displeasure at Irish official George Clancy following their slender Heineken Cup defeat to Biarritz.

Mike Phillips controversially saw his pass knocked on by opposing scrum-half Dimitri Yachvili with the scores at 29-28 in the dying seconds in San Sebastian.

And Ospreys captain Ryan Jones reckons Clancy should have awarded his men a potential match-winning penalty at the Estadio Anoeta.

Jones claimed: 'He (Clancy) said it was a penalty but there was no time. It's not soccer and I don't want to criticise the referee but we all saw that it was a deliberate knock-on. I can only tell you what he said to me."

Ospreys, who outscored their opponents by three tries to two through Jones, Lee Byrne and Nikki Walker, decided to go for a long-range drop goal with time against them but Dan Biggar, who missed five kicks at goal in the Basque country, saw his effort fall short.