On the same morning that British rock and roll giants Oasis announced their triumphant return, Northampton Saints frontman Phil Dowson insisted on Tuesday that his side must evolve upon their former glories to be successful in the 2024/25 campaign.
While the Gallagher brothers’ back catalogue of hits from yesteryear will ensure next summer’s comeback tour is a success, the men in Black, Green and Gold know that nostalgia will count for little as they bid for another champagne supernova come the end of the season. Saints will bid to join Saracens (2014/15 & 2015/16 and 2017/18 & 2018/19) as the only club to retain their Gallagher Premiership title over the past 15 years.
Saints are gearing up to step out for the first exhibition game of the 2024/25 season against Leinster on Saturday 7 September at cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens – 13 weeks after that glorious afternoon at Twickenham when Bath were beaten in a helter skelter final.
Plenty has changed in the off-season with a group of senior players moving on to pastures new or into retirement, while others are returning to the squad with their domestic achievements backed up by impressing on the international stage all around the world.
“The squad evolves, the game evolves and also tactically and technically we have to evolve,” said Saints’ Director of Rugby, Dowson. “We have a target on our backs now as well.
“What we’ve got to be conscious of is that every year is a different chapter in the history of the Club. Last year’s chapter was a great chapter; we managed to send some players off who contributed a huge amount – Courtney Lawes, Alex Waller, Lewis Ludlam, Alex Moon, Joel Matavesi, Tom Cruse, and so on. All those lads contributed a huge amount to the Club.
“And we retired the badge. The badge was changing, so there was some identity stuff in there. It finished on a real high, but it finished.
”That season has gone. We now have got to be careful not to live off that. The next group have to step up.”
Phil Dowson, Director of Rugby
“There’s loads of lads who contributed last year, but some didn’t contribute as much as they wanted to, and now the challenge for them is to replace some of those players that have gone away – to fill those gaps and show what they are capable of.”
Saints’ England internationals have returned from half the world away on their summer tour to Japan and New Zealand and reintegrated into the group last week, with the squad training full on together for the first time in recent days.
While heroes like Lawes, Waller and Ludlam might not be on the training paddock with them any more, Dowson believes their impact will live forever and have a lasting positive impact on the group.
“Courtney, he’s an absolute rock and roll star, a club legend,” explained Dowson. “Clearly with his experience and his know-how, the lads looked to him in certain moments, so he will be missed. But little by little we’ve picked up some of that experience, people have learned from him and other players are taking on some of his personality under pressure, when he’s very cool and calm.
“People like [George] Furbank, Dingers [Fraser Dingwall] and Alex Coles would have picked up a huge amount from him, just being around him in those games. Clearly he is a big miss but we have to move forward and we have to try and develop different leaders.”
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