Franklin’s Gardens feeling like home for Adendorff

Saints back-row Shaun Adendorff believes his performance in Saturday’s win over Gloucester was a sign of how comfortable he feels having now fully settled into life at Northampton.

While moving clubs and trying to settle in a new country in the middle of a pandemic-disrupted campaign certainly had its difficulties, Adendorff now feels completely at home within the squad at Franklin’s Gardens.

Crossing the whitewash twice in the bonus-point win at Kingsholm – his first tries since moving to Saints last summer – Adendorff was rewarded for consistently taking up positions in the wide channels.

And while that particular role is new to the South African, after a man-of-the-match performance Adendorff is hoping to produce more of the same in the coming weeks.

He said: “It has been a tough period recently for everyone, not just for me or for rugby players – particularly for my wife at the moment with the kids not in school! It’s a question of how quickly you can adapt.

“When you change teams and change country it takes a bit of time. It took a little bit longer for me even though I was trying to settle into the system as quickly as possible.

“I’m playing out wide now, which I normally don’t do, but the ball came to me and I did what I was supposed to. It all paid off.”

Adendorff’s double came during a clinical period for Saints. After struggling to break through a dogged Gloucester line before half-time, three tries in a ten-minute burst during the second half was just reward for constantly applying pressure with ball in hand.

“We had a set game-plan and it went very well. In the first half the scoreboard didn’t reflect this, but we were wearing them down,” Adendorff added.

“That’s the game plan we had. We knew that they would break at some stage and the second half told that story.

“Now we are getting go forward ball in the middle of the park. We are not just relying on the edges for that momentum. We are sucking in players which creates the opportunities on the outside – that’s where I was.

“I’m now able to take the opportunities we create and put points on the board, and I just want to do more of that for Northampton.”