Everything rosy in the Gardens?
NORTHAMPTON SAINTS are standing at a crossroads, one which could change the course of the English national team’s fortunes over the next decade.
Think that’s an exaggeration? Think again. Just look at the core of the England team that has been reinvigorated over the last 12 months. The renaissance of the England side can be traced to Paris in March 2010 when Chris Ashton flicked a pass to Ben Foden, who streaked into the corner for an exhilarating score.
Since then, that attacking philosophy has been firmly imprinted on England — their most recent outing in Dublin notwithstanding, of course — and has been led by a Northampton-based revolution. With a nod to the Leicester half-back pairing of Ben Youngs and Toby Flood, this is a team fashioned behind the scenes at Franklin’s Gardens.
Foden and Ashton provide the cutting edge in the backline, but the English backbone is most evident in the pack. Dylan Hartley, Courtney Lawes and Tom Wood are now all England regulars, while Phil Dowson regularly trains with Martin Johnson’s squad. Add in the talents of Lee Dickson, Stephen Myler and Christian Day, and the Saints could provide half the England team in a couple of years.
Yet all is not quite as rosy as it might seem at Franklin’s Gardens. The problems can be condensed to three issues. The first is the club’s recruitment drive. Do they, in short, stick with the natives? The club’s form dipped alarmingly during the Six Nations as they lost four Aviva Premiership games in succession, but has picked up now their internationals are back.
Director of rugby Jim Mallinder has already begun hinting that a sea change could be in the offing. “It’s hard because you can’t account for how many (international players) you’re going to lose at the start of the season,” said a man whose recruitment process was strongly influenced by his spell in charge of the England Saxons.
That suggests a change in Saints’ established policy. In the past they have looked to recruit the best young English talent at other clubs — Foden from Sale, Newcastle’s Dowson, Wood from Worcester, while occasionally raiding Rugby League, as they did to superb effect with Ashton. Of course, it helps if you have a 6ft 7in wunderkind in your youth system, but Lawes can be considered a one-off.
But next season could well see Saints move away from a reliance on English players. Ryan Lamb, a great unfulfilled talent, is essentially arriving as a replacement for Shane Geraghty, but Russian back Vasili Artemiev and Samoan centre George Pisi could be more symptomatic of the direction Saints will choose. With Saints having gifted a whole generation of players to England at the same time, their decision could well have a huge knock-on effect for the national team.
The second is the club’s stadium. Franklin’s Gardens is, at just over 13,500 seats, too small to meet the ERC’s 15,000 minimum capacity limit. For that reason, the game against Ulster is being played at Stadium:MK in Milton Keynes, taking away a large part of Saints’ advantage of being at home in front of their vociferous crowd.
Indeed, plans to expand Franklin’s Gardens are currently in limbo as the club await local council elections before lobbying to convince them to approve plans that would see ASDA undertake the vast majority of the costs, on the condition that a car park at the ground is converted into a supermarket. If this is not approved then the club are weighing up whether to fund the expansion to 17,000 themselves.
Thirdly is the issue of the salary cap. It currently stands at just over €4.8m, with Northampton making full use of that amount. Additionally, wages are increasing with inflation while the salary cap is not. The end result is that players will be cut from squads, as has been the case this season. The alternative is to allow the standard-bearers of the Saints’ squad, to depart for France if a large offer comes in. That is unthinkable for Mallinder.
As it stands, Northampton have hit a glass ceiling. They may not have won either the Aviva Premiership or the Heineken Cup under the current set-up, but they have no way of expanding and building a much more long-lasting legacy if they maintain the status quo. Mallinder and his trusted assistants, Dorian West and Jim Grayson, have played the system superbly and built a side that combines a wonderfully powerful attack with genuinely exciting backs. Yet even if they beat Ulster this weekend — and as they are the only side who went unbeaten in the Pool stages there is absolutely no reason why they should not — where do Saints go from here?
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