Jim has been driving Audi ’ s during this time from the Vindis Group and Driven went to speak to him about both cars and , of course , rugby .

His rugby career started at Sale Sharks as a fullback , where he stayed for 15 years as a player and a coach . He was an uncompromising player whose sheer size was complemented by speed and game understanding .

He was also formerly a P . E and Mathematics teacher at William Hulme ’ s Grammar School in Manchester before the game turned professional . Teaching ’ s loss became rugby ’ s gain .

When he retired from playing in 2001 , after nearly 400 games for Sale and two England caps , he was appointed as the Sharks ’ Head Coach . In his first season he took the Sharks from 11th to 2nd in the Premiership and their first Heineken Cup qualification . In 2002 , he led Sale to the Parker Pen Shield , now the European Challenge Cup , and their first silverware .

In 2004 , he left Sale to take up a post in the Rugby Football Union ’ s ( RFU ) National Academy . Working with former England coach Brian Ashton , he masterminded the England Under 21s into winning the Under 21s ’ version of the Six Nations in 2006 with a clean sweep of six wins out of six . He was also named by UK Sport in their prestigious Elite Coach scheme .

He was subsequently handed the reins of the England Saxons , where he had an impressive record of 15 wins from 16 matches . His last match in charge saw the Saxons defeat the New Zealand Maori ’ s at Twickenham to win the Churchill Cup .

In June 2007 , Jim took up his post at Northampton Saints , and has , from the very beginning , brought success . Jim looks back with fondness and wonders where the last six years have gone .

“ I ’ m coming up to the end of my sixth season here . It does seem like it was only yesterday that I started .”

“ At the time the club was in the first division and had just got relegated so were in the Championship . It was the potential and the history here that sold it to me , as well as Keith Barwell , the then Saints Chairman and his vision for moving the club forward .”

It did not take long for Jim to turn around the club ’ s fortunes sealing promotion straight back to the Premiership at the first attempt .

“ We did particularly well in the first year , we went unbeaten and we got straight back into the Premiership , which is where we wanted to be and felt we should be .”

In their first season back in the top flight of English rugby , Saints finished a creditable eighth and also reached the semi-finals of the Anglo-Welsh Cup - where they were beaten by eventual champions , Cardiff Blues . Success did come in the European Challenge Cup . An unbeaten pool campaign was followed by victories over Connacht and Saracens in the knockout stages before defeating Bourgoin at the Twickenham Stoop to lift their first piece of major silverware in ten years . This also secured a place in the Heineken Cup , the premier competition of European club rugby , in the process .

“ It was the potential and the history here that sold it to me ”

More trophies were put into the cabinet in each of the first three seasons Jim was in charge including the LV =

Cup in 2009 / 10 beating Gloucester . Jim also improved league form and in the same season Saints finished second in the Premiership , their highest position for a decade , winning more games than any other side that season . In the process , they secured a first home play-off semi-final in the club ’ s history but unfortunately were beaten . That season Saints went further in the Heineken Cup than any other English team before losing to Irish side , Munster , in the Quarter-Finals .

The following year , in 2010 / 11 , Mallinder became the first coach to guide a team unbeaten through the Heineken Cup pool stages and all the way to the final . At the Millennium Stadium , despite holding a commanding first half lead , Saints were beaten 33-22 by Leinster in one of the best finals in years . That season , a good league campaign saw Saints again reach the Premiership knockout stages .

“ Along the way we picked up a few trophies , winning the Amlin Cup and the European Challenge Cup and we ’ ve come very close to winning the Heineken Cup two years ago . Getting to the final was a tremendous achievement ; it was a big disappointment not to win it . To come so close was a real achievement for the club .”

Another final would follow in 2011 / 12 - the LV = Cup once more - and while that game with Leicester , along with an Aviva Premiership Rugby semi-final at Harlequins , would end in defeat it was another competitive season from an injury , and internationally , depleted Saints squad .

All this success has been achieved by Jim in such a short amount of time with the club . A very impressive resume , but he has always sets himself goals and despite being so close on numerous occasions is yet to win one of the two big competitions .

“ You do want to win trophies and you want to win as many as you can . That is why we ’ re in the game . We want to be one of Europe ’ s top teams and be competing consistently .”

“ I think one of the things we ’ ve been really proud of is to see players develop and not just for England but for other nations too .”

Although Jim had to change many things in order to turn the fortunes of the club around so quickly , when looking back , developing young talent is top of the list .

“ We ’ ve always been very concerned with developing players . We did have a couple of internationals when I arrived but what we have done is brought a lot of younger players with potential and developed them into current internationals . We ’ ve got six currently in England ’ s 32-man squad .”

“ I think one of the things we ’ ve been really proud of is to see players develop and not just for England but for other nations too .”

In the current English game , Jim recognises the need to constantly look at developing players from the local region .

“ There is no salary cap in France , like there is here and it does restrict us so I think what we ’ ve got to do is get the balance right between bringing in the odd overseas player of quality and combine that with developing our own local talent . We ’ ve put a lot of resource into that and the academy staff here have done a tremendous job .

“ We ’ ve had about five players involved in England ’ s Under-20 team and we ’ ve got lots of players under 18 and 16 coming through , it is a really good sign for the future .”

“ I think if we can get local home grown players coming through the system then I think that the supporters relate to them even more .”

“ We ’ ve had a bit of an up and down season . We won our

first five games and were right at the top of the league , and then we went through a little bit of a dip just before and after Christmas . We ’ ve come out of that and had great end to the season that saw us reach the final at Twickenham .”

The end of this season culminated with the Saints playing rivals Leicester Tigers in a controversial match at Twickenham in which they lost 37-17 .

With the success that Jim has brought to Northampton over the last six years , it was no surprise that he found himself in the media spotlight as one of the leading contenders to replace Martin Johnson as England coach before current boss , Stuart Lancaster was appointed back in March 2012 .

When looking towards the future , as well as winning trophies and developing young hungry talent , Jim feels that Saints ’ fans , and the wider Northampton community , is core to any future success .

“ We see our supporters as very important , we want to be a club where we are close to our supporters and they feel part of the club . I think we ’ re working hard at developing that relationship . The players now eat in the side bar so that really brings players closer to the supporters .

“ We ’ ve also reintroduced the open day , which gives them the chance to walk round the stadium , meet the players and to go into the gym . We ’ ll put a few things on , we ’ ll have a bit of a media room and show interviews , we ’ ll have the players go out on the pitch and

practice passing , things like that .” These open days are run at the end of the season .

When talking about cars , Jim doesn ’ t claim to be much of a petrol head , but did discuss some of the cars he ’ s driven . “ I ’ m currently in an A6 Allroad . Very appropriate for this time of year and very handy particularly with me living in a Northampton village . I think with the rain that we ’ ve had , and with the snow and ice , to have a car like the Allroad has been absolutely fantastic .”

“ A lot of people said to me ‘ I like the look of your car ’ ”

“ With teenagers who are roomy , my son is 6 ’ 5 ”, I need the space . Certainly when he , my daughter and my wife are travelling together it is a fantastic car to have ”

“ I think probably the car that stands out would be the A7 . I just really enjoyed driving it , just a personal taste really . Probably not quite as suitable for the family , but I really did enjoy that . It had that little bit of acceleration and that little bit of class . A lot of people said to me ‘ I like the look of your car ’ and there didn ’ t seem to be that many on the road so it felt unique .”

We thank Jim for his continued support for the Vindis Group and wish Northampton Saints and all their players , staff and supporters all the best for the future .