Victorious Northampton Saints Under-18s captain Jack Lawrence admitted the Club’s near misses of the past fuelled the fire to deliver Premiership Rugby Academy League glory.
Charlie Reed’s side stormed their way into last Sunday’s final at Kingsholm Stadium with four bonus-point victories in the pool stage.
They extended that formidable form in Gloucestershire to defeat Bath 31-14 and end a run of three successive final defeats to lift the shield for the first time since 2014.
“It’s our fourth year in the final and we’ve gone and done it,” said 18-year-old second row Lawrence. “That’s something you had to say to the lads, this can’t be the fourth repeated year, that’s it.
“It’s quite surreal to be honest. The season builds up to this from preseason and there’s so much training and time and hard work that goes into this and it builds up to this, even from our DPP [Developing Player Programme] days at Under-15 level, this is what it builds up to.
“So to be in the programme from all the way back then, to all the way up here, it’s just something really special to be honest.”
Jack Lawrence, Saints Under-18s captain
History appeared to be repeating itself at half-time in Gloucestershire as 2023/24 champions Bath took a seven-point lead into the interval.
However, Saints produced a clinical second-half performance with Jack Lewis striking for a second try to follow his first-half effort, James Hudson and Aiden Reid also added tries and Hugh Shields was faultless from his five efforts from the tee.
“I said to the boys before the game, not everything’s going to go our way, but if we stick in this lads, if we stick together, we will have one hell of a night and that’s exactly what happened,” added Lawrence, who attends St Joseph’s College and originates from Shelford Rugby Club.
🎥 Up close and personal.
— Northampton Saints 😇 (@SaintsRugby) February 17, 2025
Go behind the scenes of a special evening as we claimed the U18 @premrugby title at Kingsholm 🏆 pic.twitter.com/DWLNJbGQQO
“Our lineouts didn’t go great, but we stuck at it and we fought through. We have got a great coaching staff and they all make key points. It’s narrowed down to literally individual points that can’t get out of your heads.
“We go in with three defensive points, maybe two attacking points and we stick by them. If we do that week after week then progressively, over time, you're not going to perfect your game, but you’re going to get something near to that.”
