Inside the Northampton camp: How Saints' visit to church will guide their Premiership title defence ahead of curtain-raiser
When a player joins Northampton Saints — be they an expensive international signing or school graduate — they are put under the microscope.Their rugby ability has already been scrutinised and approved. But their character is then assessed in more detail before they are assigned to one of the club’s four mini teams.It is not quite Harry Potter and the Sorting Hat, but it is somewhere close, with the fresh faces assigned to each side through a draft system. The mini teams — which all have specific colours and logos — are ‘Rippers’, ‘Runamok’, ‘Manor’ and ‘Megatrons’. The idea is to foster a sense of togetherness, as well as competition, that is unmatched elsewhere in the Gallagher Premiership.‘It turns the whole club into a family,’ says Saints back George Hendy. Northampton’s family feel has already helped them to success. On Friday, they will start the 2024-25 season as defending Premiership champions.Here, Mail Sport takes you inside Saints’ plan to retain their crown. Northampton Saints have been preparing to launch their Premiership title defence Saints’ director of rugby Phil Dowson admits the team have a target on their backs this seasonFrom team meetings in church, a players-versus-staff cricket match, the hiring of Team GB’s Olympic psychologist and a new badge, it has been a busy summer at Franklin’s Gardens. In many ways, the new campaign represents a fresh dawn for Saints.Club legends Courtney Lawes, Lewis Ludlam and Alex Waller have all departed. Mark Darbon, the respected chief executive, is also soon to move on. And then there has been the change in the club’s badge, designed to move Northampton with the times.The new, simpler logo hasn’t pleased everyone, but sales of the club’s new match and training kits have hit record levels in pre-season.‘We have a target on our backs now,’ says Saints’ director of rugby Phil Dowson. ‘What we’ve got to be conscious of every year is a different chapter in the history of the club. Last season was a great chapter. It finished on a real high, but it’s finished.‘It’s yesterday’s news. Gone. We’ve retired the badge, so there is some identity stuff there, too. We can’t live off that. The next group has to step up.’Dowson is keen to ensure his team is not resting on their title-winning laurels and has mic’d up players in training to assess who will be the next generation of leaders, with former England forwards Lawes and Ludlam now playing in France.This time last year, Northampton’s players emphasised gaining weight to add defensive grunt to their fluid attacking game. The result was a first league title in a decade. This season, the focus is perhaps more mental than physical. Dowson has hired psychologist Oli Dixon, who worked with Team GB at this summer’s Paris Olympics, to provide guidance to his squad. Courtney Lawes was among the club legends to depart at the end of their title winning season Players have been mic’d up in pre-season to assess who will be the next generation of leaders Northampton Saints have a simplified badge, designed to keep them moving with the times‘We spent a lot of time last year trying to find the right psychologist,’ Dowson says. ‘Towards the end of last season, we had Oli come in and he had an immediate impact. He is coming in two days a week now and his role covers so many different things — pre-match routine, dealing with losing games and separating your personal life from your game life, because sometimes that can cross over and become an issue.‘There are so many different things the group can still get better at. Oli has been important in guiding us around leadership development.’On the first day of pre-season, while the club’s seven England stars were still resting after their summer tour of Japan and New Zealand, Dowson decided to take his players over the road to St James Church. He placed the Premiership trophy at the altar and said it would be the last time his players saw it.The message was clear — last season’s group won that prize. Now the class of 2024-25 must do likewise. ‘Last year we did something great in the league and I would love for this group to back it up,’ says Saints’ England fly-half Fin Smith.‘With some of the outgoings, maybe some people are writing us off but we’re super confident. Everyone is usually gunning for the team that’s won the league the season before. While we expect that to happen, we quite like the idea we’ll quietly go about our business and hopefully surprise a few people like last year.’Last season, Northampton’s form saw a host of their players rewarded with England selection. Alex Mitchell is now the No 1 scrum-half for club and country. He and Smith, alongside other international colleagues, holidayed in Bali on the way home from New Zealand.On their return, Saints’ players have helped open the town’s first padel court, played golf, and avenged the previous year’s defeat by the club’s staff in their annual cricket challenge. They have also honed their fitness with wrestling and combat skills at a gym appropriately named Blood, Sweat and Tears. A message has been sent the 2024-25 team must aim to repeat the success of last year's group Fly-half Fin Smith insists the team is 'super confident' despite changes over the summer Competition has run through everything at Northampton Saints, including the warm-upsCompetition runs through everything at Saints. The squad are split into their mini teams for football warm-ups. Slide tackles are banned but one young player didn’t take the warning recently and, after lunging in, was punished with an additional 10-kilometre Wattbike session.Northampton’s youngest players, who join the club’s academy out of school, are required to have their heads shaved for the start of their first campaign. It’s a long-standing Saints tradition.Such practices were introduced by former director of rugby Chris Boyd, who is a close ally of Dowson and head coach Sam Vesty. They have reaped the rewards of the New Zealander’s work.‘We put a big onus on being more player-led last season and not being spoon-fed by the coaches, which maybe we had been a little bit before,’ says England full back George Furbank, who has taken over the captaincy from Ludlam.Furbank epitomises Saints’ approach, having attended the club’s community rugby festivals as a youngster before progressing through the academy to the first team.At a time of financial difficulty in English club rugby, Northampton pride themselves on being sustainable. Developing their own players via their academy is an important part of their plan. Captain George Furbank epitomises Saints’ approach of developing players from the academyThat approach won’t change when Julia Chapman succeeds Darbon as chief executive in November. Chapman first joined Saints in 2016 and has a background in finance. She is keen to help Saints attract a new generation of supporters.‘We want to leave a legacy at this club. We want to bring young people with us and attract more people as fans,’ Furbank says.Northampton are the favourites for the 2024-25 title. Lawes and Ludlam are big losses and haven’t been replaced directly, but with a dangerous back division full of English talent, Saints should challenge once again.Not since Saracens in 2018-19 have a team won back-to-back titles. Northampton have a good chance of doing exactly that.
