Northampton Saints

Northampton Saints
	File:Northampton saints badge.png
Full name	Northampton Saints RFC
Founded	1880
Location	Northampton, England
Ground(s)	Franklin's Gardens (Capacity: 13,601)
Chairman	Keith Barwell
Coach(es)	Jim Mallinder
League(s)	Guinness Premiership
2007-08	1st (Promoted from National Division One)
1st kit	2nd kit
Official website
	www.northamptonsaints.co.uk

Northampton Saints are a professional English rugby union club from Northampton, England. Northampton play in green, black and gold colours. They play their home games at Franklin's Gardens which has a capacity of 13,600.

In the 2007/8 season, the team played in England's second tier, National Division One, but has returned to the Guinness Premiership for the 2008/9 season, having clinched the ND1 championship with their victory over Exeter Chiefs on March 22, 2008.

The Northampton Saints were formed in 1880. The club won their first major trophy when they defeated Munster in the 1999-00 Heineken Cup final.

History

Early years

The club was established in 1880 under the original title of Northampton St. James (Saints) by Rev Samuel Wathen Wigg, a local clergyman and curate of St. James who was a resident of the nearby village of Milton Malsor^[1]. This is how the club got its two nicknames of The Saints or Jimmies. His original concept was to promote "order" to his younger parish members by creating a youth rugby club, with the philosophy of a "hooligan sport designed to turn them into gentlemen".

It was not long before Northampton had one of the major rugby union teams in the country. Twenty years after its establishment, the first Saints player, local farmer Harry Weston, was awarded an England cap.

As the club progressed through the early years of the 20th century one player dominated this era for the club, Edgar Mobbs. Edgar was a hero throughout the town. He was the first Northampton player to captain his country but he is best remembered for his exploits in World War I. After initially being turned down as too old, Edgar raised his own "Sportsman's" battalion otherwise known as Mobbs Own. Edgar was sadly killed in battle, leading his battalion over the top by kicking a rugby ball into No-Mans land on 29 July 1917 attacking a machine gun post and his body was never found. The club arranged the Mobbs Memorial Match as a tribute. It has been played every year since 1921 between the Barbarians and East Midlands at Franklin's Gardens.

In this postwar period the Saints continued to grow, and they started to produce some of the best players in England, some of whom went on to captain their country. They were one of the driving forces in the English game for the next 60 years producing players such as Butterfield, Jeeps, Longland, White and Jacobs but hard times were ahead.

The club failed to keep pace with movements within the game and top players were no longer attracted to the Gardens, where a 'them and us' mentality had built up between the players and those in charge of the club. Some former players formed their own task force which swept out the old brigade in the 1988 'Saints Revolution' and put a plan into action which would put the club back at the top of the English game.

Barry Corless, as director of rugby, set about restructuring the club and soon the Saints were back on the way up, helped by the signing of All Blacks legend Wayne 'Buck' Shelford.

In 1990, Northampton Rugby Union Football Club gained promotion to the then First Division and the following year made their first trip to Twickenham to play Quins in the Pilkington Cup Final. They lost in extra time but the foundations of a good Saints line-up were beginning to show in the following few seasons.

Tim Rodber and Ian Hunter forced their way into the England setup while youngsters like Matt Dawson and Nick Beal came through the ranks.

In 1994, Ian McGeechan took over as Director of Rugby, and although the club were relegated in his first season, they returned in style the next season, winning every single game of their campaign and averaging 50 points a game. This season is referred to by many fans of the club as the "Demolition Tour of Division Two".

The professional era

In 1995, rugby union turned professional and the club was taken over by current chairman local businessman Keith Barwell.

In 1999, Saints came runners-up in the Allied Dunbar Premiership, their league campaign climaxing with a crucial home local derby with eventual winners Leicester Tigers which they lost 15-22 [1]. However they became the second English club to win the Heineken Cup (emulating Bath's success in the 1998-99 competition), beating Munster 9-8 in the final [2]. Ian McGeechan had left the club at the end of the previous season to return to coach Scotland, and was replaced by former Saints player John Steele who had done well on a limited budget at London Scottish. Steele relied on the foundations laid by McGeechan, as well as the inspirational captaincy of Samoan Pat Lam to lead the club to European success.

In 2000, the club became a Public Limited Company (Plc) and shares were issued to the public; in this season the Saints lost in the Tetley's Bitter Cup Final to Wasps, but beat Munster 9-8 in the European Cup Final to win their first major trophy.

After a poor start to the 2001/2002 season, former All-Black coach Wayne Smith was appointed as Head Coach. He went on to transform the club in five short months. A team who looked down and out in November were moulded into a side that reached the Powergen Cup final and again qualified for the Heineken Cup.

In recent times the club narrowly survived relegation from the Premiership, after the then coach (Alan Solomons) was sacked in the middle of the 2004-5 season. The coaching role was passed onto the former first team mates Budge Pountney and Paul Grayson to tide the team over. They had a slow start in the 2005-6 season, but continued to stay mainly unbeaten after the New Year. Budge retired at the start of the 2006-7 season leaving Grayson in overall control.

The Saints would again compete in the 2006-07 Heineken Cup. They finished second in their pool, behind Biarritz Olympique, the runners-up from the previous season. Northampton qualified for the quarter-finals and actually met Biarritz in Spain. Despite being in last place of the English league at the time, they defeated the French champions 7-6 to advance to the semi-finals.

On 28 April 2007, despite a 27-22 victory over London Irish at Franklin's Gardens, Northampton were relegated from the Guinness Premiership. A "behind the scenes restructure" led to the brief appointment of Peter Sloane as Head Coach, from the role of forwards coach. Paul Grayson was demoted to skills and backs coach.

On 9 June 2007, Northampton announced that England Saxons coach Jim Mallinder will become the new head coach and Director of Rugby, with his assistant Dorian West also following as assistant coach. Peter Sloane has since left the club.

On 22 March 2008, Northampton beat Exeter Chiefs to ensure their promotion and a return to the Guinness Premiership. On 12 April 2008, Northampton beat Exeter Chiefs 24-13 at Twickenham Stadium to win the EDF trophy. On 26 April 2008 they ended their National Division One season undefeated with 30 wins from 30 games.

Current Standings

Template:2008-09 Guinness Premiership Table

Players

Ins and outs for 2008–2009 season

In Ignacio Fernández Lobbe (Sale), Ben Foden (Sale), Chris Mayor (Sale), Neil Best (Ulster), Roger Wilson (Ulster), Scott Gray (Doncaster), Alan Dickens (Saracens), Lee Dickson (Newcastle), Nils Mordt (London Irish), Ben Broster (Llanelli), Juandre Kruger (Blue Bulls), Regardt Dreyer (Griquas)

Out

Johnny Howard (Bayonne), Mark Robinson (released/Wasps), Paul Tupai (Bedford), Ian Vass (Bedford), David Smith(Bedford), Darren Fox (Cambridge), Damien Browne (Connacht), Christian Short (Brive), Robbie Kydd (Bath), Will Harries (Bedford Blues, Loan)

Current Squad

For 2008/09 Season

Note: Flags indicate national union under World Rugby eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-World Rugby nationality.

Player	Position	Union
Joe Gray	Hooker	England
Dylan Hartley	Hooker	England
Brett Sharman	Hooker	South Africa
Paul Shields	Hooker	Ireland
JOSHUA WILLIAMSON	Prop	Wales
Regardt Dreyer	Prop	South Africa
Euan Murray	Prop	Scotland
Tom Smith	Prop	Scotland
Barry Stewart	Prop	Scotland
Soane Tonga'uiha	Prop	Tonga
Jon Vickers	Prop	England
James Cannon	Lock	England
Christian Day	Lock	England
Ignacio Fernandez Lobbe	Lock	Argentina
Phil Hoy	Lock	England
Juandre Kruger	Lock	South Africa
Matt Lord	Lock	New Zealand
Alex Rae	Lock	England
Neil Best	Flanker	Ireland
Mark Easter	Flanker	England
Scott Gray	Flanker	Scotland
Courtney Lawes	Flanker	England
Ben Lewitt	Flanker	England
Liam Neale	Flanker	England

Player	Position	Union
Owen Giles	Number 8	England
Mark Hopley	Number 8	England
Rob Milligan	Number 8	England
Roger Wilson	Number 8	Ireland
John Brake	Scrum-half	England
Alan Dickens	Scrum-half	England
Lee Dickson	Scrum-half	England
Ben Foden	Scrum-half	England
Barry Everitt	Fly-half	Ireland
Stephen Myler	Fly-half	England
Carlos Spencer	Fly-half	New Zealand
Joe Ansbro	Centre	England
Jon Clarke	Centre	England
James Downey	Centre	Ireland
Nick Greenhalgh	Centre	England
Chris Mayor	Centre	England
Nils Mordt	Centre	England
Grant Anderson	Wing	England
Chris Ashton	Wing	England
Will Harries	Wing	Wales
Sean Lamont	Wing	Scotland
Neil Starling	Wing	England
Paul Diggin	Fullback	England
Bruce Reihana	Fullback	New Zealand (c)