The professional rugby calendar is a relentless one, with the pre-season weeks coming thick and fast in the run up to the 2024/25 Gallagher Premiership campaign. The top flight of the English game is back on Friday September 20th, with Northampton Saints scrum half Alex Mitchell excited for his club’s opening round clash, that will take centre stage on the Saturday.
Mitchell has had a whirlwind few months since he lifted the Premiership’s top piece of silverware above his head, and barely had time to reflect upon the accomplishment. International duties soon came calling for the leading scrum half, with Steve Borthwick booking Mitchell a spot on the plane for the 2024 Summer tour of Japan and New Zealand.
Mitchell has emerged as Borthwick’s go-to man in the nine jersey, and continued this assertion of positional dominance in the trio of Test matches. This extended Mitchell’s season out to an arduous 13 months, yet the scrum half has certainly taken some valuable learnings from the land of the All Blacks back home to the East Midlands
“They’re (New Zealand) a quality side, always in the top four in the world. So, to go against the best is what you want to do, and I think you realise that at Test match level, you have half a second less. The physicality goes up. Your game management needs to go up. You’ve got to stay in the moment the whole time, and that consistency of your game, whether it’s your pass, your kick, your running game, your defence, everything matters.
“Sometimes in the Premiership or different games, you can kind of get away with that, but you can’t at that level. So it’s definitely good to learn that and try and take it back to the Saints and try and push on and keep going from there.”
Mitchell then admitted that he was frustrated with the recent two-match Test series in New Zealand, as England missed out on the chance to become ‘history makers.’ Steve Borthwick’s side were narrowly beaten by just one point in Dunedin for the first Test (16-15), before taking a heavier 24-17 loss at their Auckland fortress. Mitchell would have loved for England to end their 21 year wait for a win against the All Blacks on New Zealand soil, or better yet, end the 30-year unbeaten streak of All Blacks success at Eden Park.
“After the game, obviously (I felt) a bit subdued, bit frustrated, because I think we left a bit out there. I felt like we could have won either game. I think we had a chance at Eden Park as well to re-write history, in a way. So it’s obviously frustrating, but they were quality side and we didn’t do the job, and we weren’t good enough on the day. I want to take it on the chin and obviously a rematch, if involved in autumn, which is fantastic to have a go too.”
With a revenge match against the All Blacks scheduled in at Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium for the first weekend of November, Steve Borthwick has to make some key adjustments to his coaching staff in time for the upcoming Autumn Internationals. Borthwick has recently witnessed the unexpected departures of Strength and Conditioning coach Aled Walters to the Ireland set-up, before defence coach Felix Jones also quit the national team.
Mitchell echoed the thoughts of his Northampton and England teammate George Furbank, in how the double departures were not expected whatsoever. The scrum half expressed how he will miss the pair of backroom staff members, but expects Borthwick to make the right decision as he gets set to appoint the newest members of his coaching team.
“It’s obviously a bit of a surprise. They’re fantastic coaches. Really good crack and they’re great to have around camp. So, I’ve not really thought about it too much, it’s just come out recently, hasn’t it? Obviously I’m going to miss him (Felix Jones), miss him massively. I don’t know what extent they’re going, if they’re fully left or whatnot. They’re the great coaches and I wish them the best for the next things they’re doing.”
“I think we briefly chatted about it, obviously we saw it online, or one of the lads knew about it. We had a brief chat about obviously it was a bit surprising, but it’s nothing really to do with us. We’re the players, so they’ll sort that out, whatever the coaching staff will be, and we just turn up and do our best training wise.”
Billed as a rematch for the 2023/24 Premiership Final, Northampton travel to the Rec for a bout with Bath on the first weekend of the 2024/25 season. The blue, black and whites are eyeing up redemption for their recent silver medals, with Mitchell wanting nothing more than to start of the season with a win against one of the top contenders to the Saints’ Premiership crown.
Whilst it is a classic rugby cliche to ‘take every match as it comes’, there is no denying the personal pride on the line, as last seasons finalists get poised for battle in the opening round of the new campaign. Mitchell certainly recognises this, and expressed his thoughts on the fixture in a recent Northampton Saints press conference.
“I think a bit of both. Obviously, it’s the first game this season, so it’s the first hit out for a lot of boys, a few new boys, but we know it’s a massive, a massive game. They’re (Bath) going to be one of the best sides in the league. Again, I don’t think they’ve lost many boys, so it’s a great marker for us, especially down at their place.
“It’s a tough place to go to, to see where we’re at. We’ll get a lot from that and learn from it. Hopefully we get the result and and we go from there. But it’s very exciting for a first game to be.”
The two sets of match day squads will look different on the opening round of the season, to those that ran out at Twickenham for the final match of the latest league campaign. Northampton especially have undergone a mass changing on the guard, with the likes of club legends Courtney Lawes, Lewis Ludlam and Alex Waller calling an end to their time in the famous green, black and gold.
Mitchell recognised the need to step up following the exodus of the three leaders, as well as an assortment of other older figures moving on from Franklin’s Gardens. Despite only being 27-years-old, the England halfback is amongst the older contingency of the Northampton set-up, and alongside the likes of fellow ‘elders’ Rory Hutchinson (28) and Elliot Millar-Mills (32), Mitchell’s ready to take a greater leadership role into the new season.
“We’ve got a game drivers group. We always go through game plans and what we want to get out the year, which we will go through. But it’s early days. I think it’s like day two for us. So we’ve still got a couple of weeks to the first proper game, and then we go from there. So a few leaders will have to step up, obviously missing Courtney and Luds, huge, big misses. But it’s exciting for a few boys to step up on that.”
“I think I was first pick in the draft for the (changing room) lockers, because it’s done on caps, and it’s two caps for internationals. So I think me and Hutch (Rory Hutchinson) were drawing on like 166 or 167 each.”
“Hutch thinks he’s the old boy, in terms of he walks around like he owns the place! I guess it’s people like Hutch and it’s me and Furbs (George Furbank) now, we’ve got such a young squad, it’s very different!”
Despite feeling the weight of the Premiership winners medals around their necks, the Northampton Saints boys are not carrying any extra pressure upon themselves into the new season. Whilst it is always an impressive accomplishment to reach the proverbial mountain top, it is arguably a tougher feat to remain at the summit, with countless challengers trying to pull the Saints back down the league table.
Mitchell disregarded the idea that ‘the only way is down’, as the Saints enter the 2024/25 Premiership season as defending champions, and instead expects his teammates to embrace their previous accomplishments and bring an added swagger for their cinch Stadium faithful to enjoy.
“Not really, I’ve not thought about it that much. For me, I’m excited. I think last year we probably weren’t favourites to win it, and I’m not sure if our favourites again this year, but it’s another great opportunity to go back to back.
“We obviously know it’s a huge challenge again. I think across the board, I think someone said about the league, it’s the most competitive league around in all sports. So I think that’s great to see. But obviously we want to go again and try and win so again and try and win.”