Xavier Rush tramples over Phil Dowson during a physical Heineken Cup clash © Getty Images

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News: Blues must match Saints pack - Young

Matches: Northampton Saints 23 - 15 Cardiff Blues

Tournaments/Tours: Heineken Cup

Teams: Cardiff Blues | England | Northampton Saints | Wales

Northampton rugby director Jim Mallinder believes next Sunday's return clash in Cardiff will be the true measure of his Aviva Premiership leaders after they beat the Blues 23-15 in their Heineken Cup Pool 1 clash at Franklin's Gardens.

England star Chris Ashton and fellow winger Paul Diggin showed their finishing power with the tries which enabled Northampton to maintain their winning run in the competition, while fly-half Stephen Myler kicked the other 13 Saints points. Dan Parks responded with five penalties for the Welsh side, who Mallinder expects the hit back hard in the return clash.

"It wasn't our very best performance but we won a hard-fought game," said Mallinder. "It was a job well done but probably not a lot better than that. Cardiff are a very good team with some good international players and next week will be a real test of where we are as a team.

"To go down to Cardiff and, if we can, get a win there, will be a good sign of our growing maturity."

Cardiff had prop Tau Filise and hooker Gareth Williams, involved in a late dust-up with Dylan Hartley, sin-binned leaving their coach Dai Young questioning the first of his side's yellow card.

Filise went for a ruck offence two minutes after Saints centre James Downey was dispatched for a high tackle on Cardiff winger Tom James. Young said: "That was harsh. I think there was a bit of evening up there because I didn't see what he did."

But Young, who had questioned the legality of the Northampton scrummaging in the build-up to the match, was content with the way French referee Romain Poite handled the set piece.

After winning two early penalties, the Cardiff scrum were on the receiving end but Young said: "Any 50-50 decisions will always go to the dominant scrum and that's how it's got to be. I've got no real complaints about that."

Young was more concerned about his lineout, where Northampton poached possession three times.

"The lineout has got to be put right, we have got to make sure we are accurate The scrum's going to be a battle once again next week so we've got to keep working on it," said Young. He added: "You have got to give Northampton credit. They dominated the second half and played the game in the right areas."

Mallinder, meanwhile, revealed that an increase in the number of Sunday matches played a part in the decision to allow Scotland prop Euan Murray, a committed Christian who refuses to play on the Sabbath, to leave Northampton "by mutual consent".

He said: "He wasn't making the starting line-up or our match-day 23 because he hasn't been available to us for the last four weeks.

"He wants to play rugby and play as man games as he possibly can. We knew the situation regarding Sundays when he signed his last contract but things change and, that was before ESPN were involved (televising matches) when we didn't have as many Sunday games."