Northampton Saints
Northampton Saints is a professional rugby union club from Northampton, England. The club plays in the Gallagher PREM, England's top division of rugby union.
It was formed in 1880 as "Northampton St. James", which gave it the nickname Saints from the 1880s. The team plays its home games at the 15,249 capacity Franklin's Gardens, in the St James area in the west of the town. Since the early 1900s, the team has played in black, green and gold colours.
At the conclusion of the 2024–25 Premiership Rugby season, Saints finished 8th, which entitled them to compete in the 2025–26 European Rugby Champions Cup.
The current director of rugby is Phil Dowson, who was promoted to director of rugby in the summer of 2022.
To date, Saints have won seven major titles. They were European Champions in 2000, and English Champions in 2014 and 2024. They have also won the secondary European Rugby Challenge Cup twice, in 2009 and 2014, the Anglo-Welsh Cup in 2010, and the inaugural Premiership Rugby Cup in 2019.
Additionally, the Saints have won the Second Division title three times; in 1990, 1996 and 2008.
The Saints' biggest rivals are Leicester Tigers. The East Midlands Derby is one of the fiercest rivalries in English rugby union.
History
Early years (1880-1945)
Establishment and development
The club was established in 1880 under the original title of Northampton St. James by Rev Samuel Wathen Wigg, a local clergyman and curate of St James' Church, who was a resident of the nearby village of Milton Malsor in the house known as "Mortimers". This is how the club got its two nicknames of "The Saints" or "Jimmies". Wigg had played rugby football for around 18 months between 1878 and 1880, and the game had already been played on an informal basis in the town and the county for around 17 years. His original concept was to promote "order" amongst his younger parish members by creating an "improvement class" for troubled local boys.The first "official" game is considered to have been played against a local team, the Star from Bailiff Street, just off Northampton Racecourse. The early days saw games against teams from Northampton such as All Saints, St Michael's, Scorpions, Northampton Rugby Club, the Wanderers, and, in contrast to Saints' working-class roots, the predominantly upper-class Northampton Unity Football Club, who later offered to merge with Saints.
It was not long before Northampton had one of the major rugby union teams in the country. By the 1896–97 season they had conceded only 93 points and kept their opposition scoreless for 17 of that season's 22 games. In 1900, twenty years after its establishment, local farmer Harry Weston was the first Saints player to be awarded an England cap. The club was also drawing crowds of around 10,000 for major games, especially those against Leicester.
Relationships with other clubs in town
A minor disagreement occurred in 1897 as Saints looked to drop the "St. James" part of their name to become "Northampton Football Club", because the recently formed association football club Northampton Town FC, known as the Cobblers, also wished to assume this name. In the end, after some negotiation from RFU chairman George Rowland Hill, the Cobblers were willing to cede the name to Saints.Saints formed an early relationship with Northampton Cricket Club, after donating all ticket proceedings from their 1897 game against Portsmouth RFC to the cricket club. They followed this up with a similar gesture in 1899 after a game against Bedford.
Original All Blacks tour
In 1905, Saints managed to secure a match against the Original All Blacks, losing 32–0. After a post-match meeting on 1 May 1905, a third stripe was added to the shirt, in gold, to mark the occasion despite the heavy defeat.Edgar Mobbs
In 1908, eight years after Harry Weston's first England cap, Edgar Mobbs made his debut. Edgar was a hero throughout Northampton and in Bedford after also representing Beford several times. A victim of the RFU's witch-hunting post Great Schism he was accused of "professionalism" in 1907 and tried by the RFU, alongside several other players, all of whom were acquitted. He was the first Northampton player to captain his country but is best remembered for his exploits in World War I. After being turned down as too old to join up, Edgar raised his own "Sportsman's" battalion otherwise known as Mobbs Own. He was killed on 29 July 1917 leading his battalion over the top while kicking a rugby ball into no man's land to attack a machine gun post. His body was never recovered. Thousands turned out to see his monument unveiled in Northampton's Market Square.The club arranged the Mobbs Memorial Match in 1921 as a tribute. It was played every year between the Barbarians and East Midlands at Franklin's Gardens until the Barbarians withdrew their support in 2008. The match was saved by the efforts of former Northampton player Bob Taylor and former Northampton chairman Keith Barwell, and since 2012 it has been played alternately at Bedford Blues' Goldington Road ground and Franklin's Gardens, with the host club facing the British Army team. From 2024 the match has been played as a preseason game between Bedford and Northampton.
Postwar Period
In this period the Saints continued to grow and produced some of the best players in England, several of whom went on to captain their country. They were one of the driving forces in the English game for the next 60 years but hard times were ahead.1988 Revolution
The club failed to keep pace with developments in 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. A few former players formed their own task force, which swept out the "old brigade" in the 1988 'Saints Revolution' and put a plan into action that would put the club back at the top of the English game.Return to Normality
With Barrie Corless as director of rugby, the club set about restructuring and soon the Saints were back on the way up, helped by the signing of All Blacks legend Buck Shelford.In 1990, Northampton Rugby Union Football Club gained promotion to the 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 began to show in the following few seasons.
Tim Rodber and Ian Hunter forced their way into the England setup while younger players such as Paul Grayson, Matt Dawson and Nick Beal came through the ranks and would follow the duo into the England senior team.
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 match of their campaign and averaging 50 points a game. This season was referred to by fans of the club as the "Demolition Tour of Division Two".
Professional era
In 1995, rugby union turned professional and the club was taken over by local businessman Keith Barwell.In 1999, Saints became runners-up in the Allied Dunbar Premiership, their league campaign climaxing with a crucial home local derby against eventual winners Leicester Tigers, which they lost 15–22. 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 while working for 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 the following season.
In 1999–2000, the club became a Public Limited Company 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 that looked down and out in November were moulded into a side that reached the Powergen Cup final and again qualified for the Heineken Cup. Travis Perkins became the club's main sponsor in 2001.
The club narrowly survived relegation from the Premiership after coach Alan Solomons was sacked in the middle of the 2004–05 season. The coaching role was passed onto the former first teammates Budge Pountney and Paul Grayson. They had a slow start to the 2005–06 season, but continued mainly unbeaten after the New Year. Pountney retired at the start of the 2006–07 season leaving Grayson in overall control.
The Saints competed for the 2006–07 Heineken Cup, finishing second in their pool behind Biarritz Olympique, the runners-up from the previous season. Northampton qualified for the quarter-finals and met Biarritz in Spain. Despite being at the bottom of the English league, they defeated the French champions 7–6 to advance to the semi-finals.
Relegation (2007–08)
On 28 April 2007, despite a 27–22 victory over London Irish at Franklin's Gardens, Northampton were relegated from the English 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 became the skills and backs coach. England Saxons coach Jim Mallinder became the new head coach and director of rugby, with his assistant Dorian West following as assistant coach.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 Energy Trophy. On 26 April 2008 they ended their National Division One season undefeated with 30 wins from 30 games.