Saints ‘ready for the challenge’ of Saracens, says Lockett

Northampton Saints are ‘ready for the challenge’ of a trip to StoneX Stadium to recommence their Gallagher Premiership season against Saracens, according to forward Tom Lockett.

Both clubs head into Sunday’s game (kick-off: 3pm) off the back of a pair of Investec Champions Cup victories, including impressive wins in foreign soil as Saracens triumphed 28-17 away at Stade Francais and the men in Black, Green and Gold defeated Vodacom Bulls 30-21 in Pretoria.

While Saints are a point ahead of this weekend’s opponents in Pool C of that competition, they have some catching up to do domestically as Saracens occupy the fourth play-off place after seven rounds.

Phil Dowson’s side got the upper hand of this head-to-head last term, winning home and away in the regular season before claiming a semi-final success at cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens, on the way to lifting the Premiership trophy for the first time in a decade a week later.

“Sarries is always a big game, they were at the top for so long and obviously last year we were at the top of the pile, so everyone is chasing us,” said Lockett. “We’re ready for that challenge, we’re enjoying where we’re at, at the moment, we’re rolling from challenge to challenge and we’re up for it again this week.

Academy graduate Lockett featured 15 times in a breakthrough 2023/24 season and was rewarded with a new contract. However, he had to wait until late November to make his first outing this term due to a pectoral injury that required surgery in the summer. 

The 22-year-old’s first three appearances upon his return to action came in as many competitions as he started the Premiership Rugby Cup win over Coventry and Investec Champions Cup victory over Castres, which sandwiched the Gallagher Premiership loss to Gloucester. 

Last weekend, Lockett remained on the field throughout an energy-sapping performance at Loftus Versfeld, as Saints marked their first-ever Champions Cup clash in South Africa with a memorable bonus-point success.

“We spoke all week about making a good memory and we knew we’d had a good week anyway, but to top it off with a win like was pretty special,” added Lockett, who made 27 tackles across the two rounds of Champions Cup action.

“We’ve been pretty good at making the most of those experiences and all week we said we’d have a better memory of the trip if we won at the end. It was obviously nice that it was a bit of an upset as well.

“Obviously, it’s a massively difficult place to go and play and win as well, especially in December when it’s so hot. But we spoke about European competition really galvanizing our Premiership season when we went to Glasgow and beat them, we went to Munster and beat them – we obviously beat Toulon here at home. 

“It was sort of a catalyst for the rest of our season and obviously we’re two from two now and we’ve performed pretty well against Castres and against the Bulls, and it would be nice for that to carry over.”