An era of great change has been entered at Franklin’s Gardens, with the new-look cinch Stadium set to open it’s doors ahead of the 2024/25 Premiership Rugby season. Northampton Saints enter the campaign as defending champions, a position they find themselves in for the first time in a decade.
The Saints have marked the occasion with a brand new logo, with the previous coat of arms removed in favour of a simplistic design of green, black and gold. The new ‘cross’ logo was unveiled in July, which received a mixed bag of support from the East Midlands faithful. Today, Northampton Saints welcomed the reporting media and spectators for the pre-season open day, and CEO Mark Darbon discussed the primarily positive reaction to the new badge, with kit sales on the rise ahead of the 2024/25 season.
“We knew it was big choice for the club, but we’re really confident in the rationale for change, and we feel really good about what we’ve come up with. There has been some noise. We knew there was going to be some noise. We’re not surprised by that. I think if you really get under the skin of that noise, it’s a reasonably vocal, relatively small group of people.
“Actually, I can empathise, lots of people, including many of our players and many of our staff, have only known the badge that we had and change is not easy. But actually, when people who’ve been here and have been to the (club) shop, have seen some of the new branding going up around the ground, and have seen our players wearing the training kit, when they’re seeing it in situ, the response is positive.
“The sales that we’ve had so far, versus any of our recent seasons, are up and up strongly. So I think people are engaging with it. There’s going to remain a group of people who don’t love the change, but I go back to the starting point, which was we felt there was a really compelling rationale for change to ensue, as part of what we’ve talked about, that we can engage an audience for the future, that we’re digitally ready. We feel strong in that rationale, and so we’re optimistic about how it will continue to be received.”
With the Premiership trophy taken out of the cabinet, the Northampton Saints fans have flooded down to Franklin’s Gardens to grab their photos with the stunning piece of silverware. The Saints are out to defend their title, with their campaign commencing on September 20th away at Bath’s Recreation Ground.
“It’s the position you want to be in, right?” Darbon said. “So, really proud of our success last year. I think we’re optimistic for what’s to come this season. Obviously, a bit of change on the playing side, but we’ve got a very settled spine core to our side. It’s homegrown. I think we’re still at 70-odd percent of our senior squad has come through our academy.
“That’s something we’re really proud of, and so we’re optimistic and looking forward to getting into it at the same time. You know, without the likes of Courtney (Lawes) and Lewis Ludlum, things are going to look and feel a little bit different. So we’ve got a job to integrate the new players we’re bringing in, but we’re really optimistic for what’s to come.”
An important element of discussion ahead of the 2024/25 season, is the ‘imminent’ signing of the Professional Game Partnership between Premiership Rugby and the RFU. The deal is to organise a symbiotic relationship between the top flight clubs and Steve Borthwick’s England team, to get the best out of the players for their respective clubs whilst also utilising their talents on the Test match stage.
Northampton were the top contributors to the England squad for the 2024 Guinness Six Nations, with a total of seven Saints running out for Borthwick’s brigade in the latest campaign. The back-line assortment of Alex Mitchell, Fin Smith, Fraser Dingwall, Tommy Freeman, Ollie Sleightholme and George Furbank is a core contingent for England’s future, along with the back-row bruiser Tom Pearson, who’s out to make a name for himself.
“Well, I think we have been advocates of an evolution of the relationship with the RFU on many fronts. The playing, rugby side, as well as commercially and from a marketing perspective. We’ve been supporters of this new PGP, and we think, given some of the challenges that we’ve touched on within our game, if you’ve got alignment between the key stakeholders, it gives you a bit of a leg up in that journey you need to go on, to ensure that the sport thrives in the future.
“The new PGP isn’t signed yet, but I think it’s pretty close. We’re, as a club, pretty comfortable with what’s in there, and excited by a lot of it. I think at the same time, there are many aspects of that new deal, which we’re going to learn about as we go through the next few seasons. You know, the proof of the pudding will be in the eating.
“One of the ones that comes up typically, is the relationship around your key players, who are England internationals, and who can call the shots in terms of medical and S&C (strength and conditioning) approaches under these new hybrid contracts. Again, we’re really open minded on that front. Our team’s got a good relationship into the England setup. I think it’s those relationships that will be the big driver of what plays out.”
The PGP is set to impact all sorts of the modern rugby goings on, with the landscape of the sport as we know it set for a shake-up in England. Aside from deciding the on-field minutes of the England players and their club commitments, the PGP will also have a profound impact upon the Premiership’s commercial partnership with the RFU, with the two rugby bodies working together to get more fans through the turnstiles at both Twickenham and across the country.
“It is a bit of a new world, and we’re going to have to watch that space carefully and make sure we work really effectively with them. One of the bits of the new deal that I’m really excited about is the marketing side of that relationship. So this feels strange, but in many ways, there’s not been a huge amount of collaboration between the RFU and Premiership Rugby and it’s clubs, in terms of growing the audience for our sport.
“If we’re to make headway with the challenges we face, we have to grow the audience. We’ve said that many times already, and I’m hoping that that new JMA, the Joint Marketing Agreement, will help us unlock some of those opportunities, and from a club and league perspective, tapping into the large international rugby audience and trying to get them to Premiership games in hope that they fall in love with that strong product, is a big part of that journey for us.”
Whilst the coaching landscape changes amongst the England set-up, Darbon is assuring the Northampton fans that their Premiership winning coaches will remain in green, black and gold. England have recently confirmed the departures of Aled Waters and Felix Jones, with the duo exiting after the recent Summer tour of New Zealand. Waters’ future has been confirmed amongst Andy Farrell’s Ireland coaching staff, with Jones’ pastures new as yet unconfirmed.
Northampton’s coaching set-up of Director of Rugby Phil Dowson and head coach Sam Vesty remain under lock and key in the East Midlands, despite any possible incoming calls from Steve Borthwick and co coming in from Twickenham.
“Yes, so all of our coaching groups are under contract. We’re so proud of what they’ve done over recent seasons, obviously, last year in particular. But it’s been building amongst that coaching group following the transition, really, that we made when Chris Boyd stepped away from the Director of Rugby role a couple of seasons ago.
“So we’ve sort of relatively recently extended the contracts of Dows (Phil Dowson), of Sam Vesty, of Lee Radford, James Craig are under contracts. So I think we’re in a good place with that coaching group. When people are saying your coaches are doing a good job, we take that as a huge compliment. So we’re optimistic that they’ll continue to lead us on to lots of success.”
As the Premiership and England Rugby enter their collaborative new era, the future looks promising for the sport in this post-pandemic age. The sporting world is still feeling the effects of the Covid-19 lockdowns, a year removed from the financial collapse of Wasps, Worcester Warriors and London Irish. Former Championship club Jersey Reds joined the lost clubs contingent in the 2023/24 season, yet the Saints CEO is confident in his club’s continued thriving.
“I think I’d look at it for a couple of lenses, if you start with the sport, and we’re a league, right? So the sport is critical. I think you’re seeing a fantastic spectacle by almost all the measures, the league on the pitch is in really good health, and I think the season we had last year, which was so unbelievably competitive through the vast majority of the league, speaks volumes to that point.
“I think it was gripping. It’s exciting. And I think that’s borne out in some of the key leading indicators in our sport, such as the broadcast audiences, which are trending nicely, the level of engagement into the clubs and into social media and and the other metrics that we track. So if you look at sport, we’re in good health and we’ve got a lot to build on.”