Dan Biggar is still committed to joining Northampton Saints next summer despite the sacking of director of rugby Jim Mallinder, the club's chief executive Mark Darbon says
Mallinder was sacked on Tuesday after 10 years in charge with Northampton 10th in the Aviva Premiership and on the verge of elimination from the European Champions Cup.
It was confirmed in September that Biggar would be joining the Saints from the Ospreys, with the Wales international and British and Irish Lion saying he was "hugely privileged" to sign for the club.
"I spoke to Dan on Tuesday, he was here on Saturday, and he is incredibly excited," Darbon said.
"He saw a disappointing performance from us in a venue that wasn't full. He is incredibly committed and itching to get here and get on with it.
"Nothing has changed over the last couple of days."
Darbon also says he expects Jim's son, Harry Mallinder, to stay at the club after he recently signed a new contract with the Saints until 2020.
The chief executive told Sky Sports News the club's board will consult the current players before appointing Mallinder's replacement.
"We are blessed here in that we've got a senior group of players who have got a lot of experience like Dylan Hartley and Tom Wood," he said.
"I think we'd be foolish not to solicit information from the right people in the Saints family that we are blessed to have, and I also think we'd be foolish not to solicit a perspective from some of those senior players because they have a vast amount of experience."
Northampton have chosen Alan Dickens to take over as interim coach and the club hope to have a new director of rugby before the start of next season.
Dardon said: "We are very focused on our search to find Jim's successor who ideally we'd like in place in the build-up to next season.
"This wasn't a knee-jerk reaction, we think it's the right decision at the right time.
"We want to run a robust process to find the right person, so we have a long-term director of rugby in place before the start of next season.
"As hard a decision as it was given Jim's track record here, one of the benefits of making a decision at this stage is it allows us to run this open process to find Jim's long-term successor.
"Jim was disappointed as you'd expect, he's frustrated by recent results, he commands huge respect at Northampton Saints and he's been unbelievably professional."