Director of Rugby: Phil Dowson
Ground: cinch stadium @ Franklins Gardens (Capacity: 15,249)
Last Season: Champions
Northampton had a wonderful campaign last season. Early season wins over bitter rivals Leicester Tigers and a rejuvenated Saracens set them on a title winning trail, the round 14 victory over Bath a key moment for Northampton’s run-in especially having been knocked out of the Champions Cup by Bath weeks earlier.
Northampton have a whole stable of English talent, the much talked about Henry Pollock, the world class Tommy Freeman, England’s half-backs of choice Alex Mitchell and Fin Smith supplemented by the likes of South African giant JJ van der Mescht and Italian powerhouse Danilo Fischetti.
With the players Dowson has at his disposal and with Northampton’s gameplan having worked extremely well for large parts of the season with their attacking intent sharp and their pack physically abrasive you’d be hard pressed to find many flaws in the current Northampton team.
Their biggest strength does lie in attack though and that’s not up for debate, a fully fit Tommy Freeman is one of the best wingers in world rugby, George Hendy was arguably the most in-form back three player in the league last season, and the half-backs have a wonderful reading of the game.
Bath, Leicester, Exeter and Bristol all found ways to beat them, the chasing pack are chasing and Northampton will be wary of those teams that beat them Bath are powerful, Leicester are competent, Exeter are tough and Bristol are electric. Northampton are not unbeatable and the others know this.
Recruitment
IN
Jordan Els (Prop, Harlequins)
Ion Neculai (Prop, Zebre)
Lefty Zigiriadis (Prop, Ealing Trailfinders)
Ben Alexander (Hooker, Old Albanian)
Josh Taylor (Lock, Ealing Trailfinders)
Malik Faissal (Wing, Zebre)
Not a lot to get excited about here a lot of fairly unspectacular bit part additions to the front row and a whilst Faissal is considered a hot prospect and was starting a lot of games for Zebre I fail to see him get anywhere near a start with Saints other options.
OUT
Elliot Millar-Mills (Prop, Newcastle Red Bulls)
Tom West (Prop, Newcastle Red Bulls)
Marco Manfredi (Hooker, Valorugby Emiliana)
Emeka Atuanaya (Lock, Ealing Trailfinders)
Sam Graham (Back Row, Newcastle Red Bulls)
Tom James (Scrum-Half, Saracens)
George Furbank (Fullback, Harlequins)
The Red Bull revolution continues on Tyneside with Northampton losing Prem veterans to Newcastle although none of that trio were starters for Northampton. Most of the noise will be about England international Furbank but with his injury record it’s not like Saints have seen much of him in the last couple of seasons as it stands.
Northampton look set for another big year and will take some stopping although recruitment wise they haven’t really improved which is a recipe for failure even title winners can’t stand still.
My Northampton Saints 23
1 Danilo Fischetti 2 Curtis Langdon 3 Trevor Davison 4 JJ van der Mescht 5 Alex Coles (Captain) 6 Josh Kemeny 7 Tom Pearson 8 Henry Pollock
9 Alex Mitchell 10 Fin Smith 11 Ollie Sleightholme 12 Fraser Dingwall 13 Rory Hutchinson 14 Tommy Freeman 15 George Hendy
16 Robbie Smith 17 Manny Iyogun 18 Ion Neculai 19 Tom Lockett 20 Callum Chick 21 Archie McParland 22 Anthony Belleau 23 Edoardo Todaro
Prediction: 2nd (lose in play-off semi-final)
Leave a Reply