Smith's anger at Tin Pot folly

London Irish 14 Northampton 38

Virtually every chief executive and director of rugby in the English Premiership has publicly defended the spellbindingly flawed Zurich Championship, otherwise known as the end-of-season play-offs or, more accurately, the Tin Pot Trophy. But defending a tournament and actively supporting it are two very different concepts. London Irish, who have enjoyed their most successful campaign of the professional era, fielded an entire second XV against Northampton in yesterday's quarter-final at the Madejski Stadium, thereby giving their supporters the perfect excuse to go drinking elsewhere.

Of the 3,336 spectators who were at a sufficiently loose end to turn up – generally speaking, the Exiles attract upwards of 9,000 to a home game at Reading – at least 2,000 of them were from the East Midlands. If that statistic fails to strike a chord with the architects of this sporting folly, they must have cement for brains. Forget the old chestnut about not being able to fool all of the people all of the time. The Zurich Championship cannot fool any of the people any of the time.

It certainly does not fool Wayne Smith, the Northampton coach, who fairly tore into both London Irish and the tournament. "How do you prepare to play a side who are not taking the competition seriously?" the New Zealander asked, with complete justification. "I come from a land where you want to win every time you pull on a shirt. What we saw today discredited the tournament, and discredited the London Irish jersey too."

Smith then wondered aloud about the structure of a championship that gives Bristol, eighth in the Premiership and Northampton's semi-final opponents, a home draw in the last four and, quite conceivably, the chance to beat Leicester, the outstanding club in England by any measure you care to apply, to the top seeding in next season's Heineken Cup. "Did Monty Python come up with this?" he scoffed, with a rueful shake of the head. "English rugby does so many things well, but this..."

Within minutes of lobbing his final verbal grenade in the general direction of the game's administrators, he was savouring Northampton's qualification for the 2002-03 Heineken, courtesy of Wasps' defeat at Sale. London Irish, meanwhile, were savouring the prospect of a six-week break, courtesy of their own defeat here. They lost £12,000 on yesterday's deal – the cost of hiring the stadium far outweighed the business generated at the turnstiles – but with 14 first-teamers suffering from varying degrees of incapacitation, they would willingly have paid that money up front in return for a decent rest.

Some of the fringe Exiles stacked up against a powerful Northampton unit, not least the 21-year-old scrum-half Kevin Barrett. There were decent contributions in the back row, too: James Cockle, marginalised by Chris Sheasby this season, made his customary impact at No 8, while Paul Gustard, keen on a permanent move from Leicester, was in full war paint on the blind-side flank. But a victory was not remotely on the cards, despite a first-minute try from Gavin Pfister. Indeed, they were never in a position to go close.

For the record, Nick Beal claimed two first-half tries for the visitors, both of them in the right corner, and he was joined on the scoresheet before the break by his captain, Budge Pountney, who completed one of his subterranean finishes from a driven line-out. That the Midlanders managed only a penalty try in the second period said more about their own ineptitude than about the London Irish selection policy. Roll on the summer.

London Irish: Tries Pfister, Barrett; Conversions Brown 2. Northampton: Tries Beal 2, Pountney, Penalty try; Conversions Grayson 3; Penalties Grayson 4.

London Irish: E Thrower; N Drake, S Hunt (G Appleford, 21), M Cannon, N Ezulike; J Brown, K Barrett; D Wheatley (N Hatley, 64), A Flavin, S Halford (R Hardwick, h-t), G Delaney (capt), K Burke, P Gustard, G Pfister, J Cockle.

Northampton: J Shaw (S Webster, 30); C Moir (J Brooks, 72), M Tucker, J leslie, N Beal; P Grayson, M Dawson (D Malone, 76); T Smith, S Thompson, R Morris (M Stewart, 46), J Phillips, O Brouzet, A Blowers (R Hunter, 69), A Pountey (capt), M Soden.

Referee: D Pearson (Yorkshire).