Moon proud to hit Saints century at Bristol

Alex Moon admitted Saturday was a special afternoon for him and his family despite a loss at Bristol Bears, as the lock brought up a century of Northampton Saints appearances at Ashton Gate.

The men in Black, Green and Gold were beaten in the dying moments of the game in the West Country by a last-minute Gabriel Ibitoye score, having led for much of the Premiership Rugby Cup contest.

Moon, 27, led out his teammates on his 100th senior appearance for the Club, having made his debut in the same competition away at Newcastle Falcons back in November 2016.

The second rower enjoyed a standout campaign for Saints in 2022/23, starting 19 times out of 24 appearances in all competitions and solidifying his place in Northampton’s first team – and Moon insists that while he’s proud of the 100-match milestone, he’s not going to be resting on his laurels during the season ahead.

“It’s taken me a while to get there, but I am very proud to get to 100 caps,” he said.

“It’s been a long road – I’ve played in National League 2, National League 1, the Championship and did a small stint in Australia on loan, and then came back and played my way into the first team.

“So, I’ve actually probably played between 200 and 300 games of senior rugby but only 100 now for Saints’ first team. The guys made it really special last week, result aside it was an awesome week with everyone congratulating me.

“It probably took me until I was twenty-one to really figure out how to best use my body, my big frame. Particularly last year; that was the best I’ve been able to figure that out.

“I went hard in the off season. I saw a couple of areas like my ball-carrying and my leg drive which had to get better. It’s been nice in preseason to see the stuff that I worked on by myself has helped, and I’m still working hard on it. I feel very fit and fresh.”

Saints were beaten 39-38 by the Bears after a topsy-turvy encounter in Bristol. Tommy Freeman scored a brace, with Tom Seabrook, George Hendy, James Ramm and Toby Thame all also helping themselves to one try each.

The game also marked a return to competitive action for the likes of Fin Smith, Tom James, George Furbank, Fraser Dingwall, Alex Coles and Trevor Davison.

And while Moon shared Saints’ frustrations to not get the result over the line, the lock was adamant Northampton are building nicely into the start of the Gallagher Premiership campaign – which kicks-off up at Sale Sharks on Saturday 15 October, after back-to-back Cup matches on home soil against Bath Rugby and Doncaster Knights.

He said: “At this time of the year and in this competition, you’re looking to make improvements every week, and Saturday was another step up from the week before.

“The scoreline didn’t particularly reflect that and there are clearly a couple of things we need to go and work on ourselves.

“We are a performance-minded team, and we’ve had results over the years when it’s looked really good on the scoreboard, but we actually end up annoyed at ourselves because we’ve under-performed. Sometimes the scoreline can kid you into a false sense of security.

“But, the game against Bristol, performance-wise it was a step up from the last few weeks and that’s what we’ve got to look at.

“In particular, we’ve made a big change in philosophy in our defence with Lee Radford. This is the fourth or fifth game of us doing it, and we can see from week on week it’s got a lot better, but it’s going to take some time.”