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Northampton Saints
Full name	Northampton Saints
Founded	1880
Location	Northampton, England
Ground	Franklin's Gardens
Capacity	13,600
Chairman	Keith Barwell
Coach	Paul Grayson
League	Guinness Premiership
2005-06	6th
Home colours		Away colours
Official website
www.northamptonsaints.co.uk

Northampton Saints are a professional English rugby union club from Northampton, England that play in England's top league, the Guinness Premiership as well as European competitions such as the Heineken Cup. Northampton play in green, black and yellow colours. They play their home games at Franklin's Gardens which currently has a capacity of 13,600.

The Northampton Saints were formed in 1880. The club won their first major trophy when they defeated Munster in the 1999-00 Heineken Cup final. The Saints advanced to the semi-finals of the 2006-07 Cup after defeating Biarritz Olympique in Spain. They will now meet the London Wasps at the Ricoh Stadium, Coventry.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Early years 1.2 The professional era 2 Guinness Premiership Table 2006/07 3 Heineken Cup 2006/07 3.1 Pool 6 3.2 Quarter-finals 4 Players 4.1 Ins and Outs for 2006/2007 season 4.2 Squad for the 2006/2007 season 4.3 Current England elite squad 4.4 Other current internationals 5 International Caps in the club's History 6 Club honours 7 External links

The club was established in 1880 under the original title of Northampton St. James (Saints) by Rev Samuel Wathen Wigg, a local clergyman and curate of St. James. This is how the club got its two nicknames of The Saints or Jimmies. His original concept was to promote "order" to his younger parish members by creating a youth rugby club, with the philosophy of a "hooligan sport designed to turn them into gentlemen".

It was not long before Northampton had one of the major rugby union teams in the country. Twenty years after its establishment, the first Saints player, local farmer Harry Weston, was awarded an England cap.

As the club progressed through the early years of the 20th century one player dominated this era for the club, Edgar Mobbs. Edgar was a hero throughout the town. He was the first Northampton player to captain his country but he is best remembered for his exploits in World War I. After initially being turned down as too old, Edgar raised his own "Sportsman's" battalion otherwise known as Mobbs Own. Edgar was sadly killed in battle, on 29th July 1917 attacking a machine gun post and his body was never found. The club arranged the Mobbs Memorial Match as a tribute. It has been played every year since 1921 between the Barbarians and East Midlands at Franklin's Gardens.

In this postwar period the Saints continued to grow, and they started to produce some of the best players in England, some of whom went on to captain their country. They were one of the driving forces in the English game for the next 60 years producing players such as Butterfield, Jeeps, Longland, White and Jacobs but hard times were ahead.

The club failed to keep pace with movements within the game and top players were no longer attracted to the Gardens, where a 'them and us' mentality had built up between the players and those in charge of the club. Some former players formed their own task force which swept out the old brigade in the 1988 'Saints Revolution' and put a plan into action which would put the club back at the top of the English game.

Barry Corless, as director of rugby, set about restructuring the club and soon the Saints were back on the way up, helped by the signing of All Blacks legend Wayne 'Buck' Shelford.

In 1990, Northampton Rugby Union Football Club gained promotion to the then First Division and the following year made their first trip to Twickenham to play Quins in the Pilkington Cup Final. They lost in extra time but the foundations of a good Saints line-up were beginning to show in the following few seasons.

Tim Rodber and Ian Hunter forced their way into the England setup while youngsters like Matt Dawson and Nick Beal came through the ranks.

In 1994, Ian McGeechan took over as Director of Rugby, and although the club were relegated in his first season, they returned in style the next season, winning every single game of their campaign and averaging 50 points a game.

In 1995, rugby union turned professional and the club was taken over by current chairman local businessman Keith Barwell.

In 1999, Saints came runners-up in the Allied Dunbar Premiership, their league campaign climaxing with a crucial home local derby with eventual winners Leicester Tigers which they lost 15-22 [1]. However they became the first English club to win the Heineken Cup, beating Munster 9-8 in the final [2]. Ian McGeechan left the club at the end of the season to return to coach Scotland, and was replaced by former Saints player John Steele who had done well on a limited budget at London Scottish.

In 2000, the club became a Public Limited Compnay (Plc) and shares were issued to the public; in this season the Saints lost in the Tetley's Bitter Cup Final to Wasps, but beat Munster 9-8 in the European Cup Final to win their first major trophy.

After a poor start to the 2001/2002 season, former All-Black coach Wayne Smith was appointed as Head Coach. He went on to transform the club in five short months. A team who looked down and out in November were moulded into a side that reached the Powergen Cup final and again qualified for the Heineken Cup.

In recent times the club narrowly survived relegation from the Premiership, after the then coach (Alan Solomons) was sacked in the middle of the 2004-5 season. The team is now coached by former player Paul Grayson.

The Saints would again compete in the 2006-07 Heineken Cup. They finished second in their pool, behind Biarritz Olympique, the runners-up from the previous seson. Northampton qualified for the quarter-finals and actually met Biarritz in Spain. Despite being in last place of the English league at the time, they defeated the French champions 7-6 to advance to the semi-finals.

2006/2007 Guinness Premiership Table watch · edit · discuss
Club	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points for	Points against	Bonus points	Points
Gloucester	19	14	1	4	463	351	5	63
Leicester Tigers	19	12	1	6	390	375	12	62
Saracens	19	11	2	6	473	331	9	57
Bristol	19	12	1	6	333	329	6	56
Wasps	19	10	1	8	416	336	10	52
London Irish	19	11	0	8	333	330	3	47
Harlequins	19	8	0	11	401	388	9	41
Bath	19	7	1	11	364	434	8	38
Sale Sharks	19	7	1	11	364	402	7	37
Newcastle Falcons	19	7	0	12	388	489	8	36
Worcester Warriors	19	5	1	13	291	404	7	29
Northampton Saints	19	5	1	13	279	426	6	28
Reference www.guinnesspremiership.com and BBC Sport: Updated 2007-03-25 --- Current English Leagues Leicester were deducted one point for fielding an ineligible player

Team	Pld	W	D	L	TF	PF	PA	+/-	BP	Pts
Biarritz (1)	6	6	0	0	29	186	45	+141	5	29
Northampton Saints (8)	6	4	0	2	27	188	92	+96	4	20
Border Reivers	6	1	0	5	15	121	166	-45	2	6
Parma	6	1	0	5	9	79	271	-192	1	5

Notes:

• Biarritz failed in their effort to become the first club since the Heineken Cup adopted the bonus-point system in 2003-04 to score bonus-point wins in all their pool matches, but did become the sixth team to win all their pool matches, and set a record for most points earned in the bonus-point era.

16:00 2006-10-22
	Biarritz	22–10	Northampton Saints	Parc des Sports Aguiléra Attendance: 11,000 Referee: Malcolm Changleng
	Tries: Sireli Bobo (2), Mohammed Dridi, Benoît August Con: Dimitri Yachvili		Tries: Johnny Howard Con: Johnny Howard Pen: Johnny Howard

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15:30 2006-10-28
	Northampton Saints	37–13	Border Reivers	Franklin's Gardens Attendance: 12,594 Referee: Christophe Berdos
	Tries: Mark Robinson, Paul Tupai, Steve Thompson (2) Con: Carlos Spencer (3) Pen: Carlos Spencer (2)		Tries: Simon Danielli Con: Calum MacRae Pen: Calum MacRae (2)

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14:00 2006-12-09
	Parma	21–68	Northampton Saints	Sergio Lanfranchi Attendance: 2,300 Referee: Romain Poite
	Tries: Ezio Galon, Giovanni Ghidini, Marco Neethling Con: Alejandro Canale, Riccardo Robuschi (2)		Tries: Carlos Spencer, Paul Diggin (2), Chris Wyles, Steve Thompson, Mark Robinson, Daniel Browne, Sean Lamont (2) Con: Steve Myler, Carlos Spencer (7), Johnny Howard

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Round 4

15:00 2006-12-16
	Northampton Saints	36–0	Parma	Franklin's Gardens Attendance: 12,619 Referee: David Changleng
	Tries: Robbie Kydd, Penalty try, Paul Diggin, Chris Wyles, Soane Tonga'uiha, Sean Lamont Con: Carlos Spencer (3)

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17:00 2007-01-14
	Border Reivers	19–29	Northampton Saints	Murrayfield Attendance: 1,095 Referee: George Clancy
	Tries: Ross Ford, Simon Danielli, Calum MacRae Con: Calum MacRae (2)		Tries: Paul Tupai, Paul Diggin, Ben Cohen (2) Con: Carlos Spencer (3) Pen: Carlos Spencer

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Round 6

15:00 2007-01-21
	Northampton Saints	8–17	Biarritz Olympique	Franklin's Gardens Attendance: 12,541 Referee: Donal Courtney
	Tries: Soane Tonga'uiha Pen: Carlos Spencer		Tries: Andrea Masi, Sireli Bobo Con:Dimitri Yachvili (2) Drop Goal: Dimitri Yachvili

2007-04-01 1400
	Biarritz	6 – 7	Northampton Saints	Estadio Anoeta[1] Attendance: Referee: ~32,000
	Pen: Yachvili (2) 39', 60'		Try: Kydd 66' c Con: Spencer

In

David Akinluyi (Cambridge University), Stephen Myler (Salford City Reds), Mattieu Bourret (Perpignan/France),Matias Cortese (Liceo/Argentina), Christian Labit (Narbonne/France), Rob Laird (London Wasps), Vaughan Going (Bristol), Christian Short (Connaught/Ireland), Chris Wyles (Doncaster), Ian Vass (Harlequinns), Sean Michael-Stephen (Canada)* Soane Tonga'uiha (Bedford), Dylan Hartley (Academy), Mark Hopley (Academy), Mark Easter (Academy), Paul Diggin (Academy)

^*On trial

Out

James Pritchard (Bedford), Luke Harbut (Released), Selborne Boome (Western Province/South Africa), John Rudd (Newcastle Falcons), Grant Seely (Retired- Now academy coach at Saints), Ross Beattie (Borders), Ben Jones (Doncaster), Brett McNamee (released), Colin Noon (Biarritz), Mark Soden (Unione Rugby Capitolina/Italy), Brett Sturgess (released), Andy Vilk (Sale Sharks).

Pat Barnard Damien Browne Daniel Browne Mattieu Bourret Chris Budgen Jon Clarke Ben Cohen Matias Cortese Paul Diggin Mark Easter Darren Fox David Gerard Vaughan Going Dylan Hartley Mark Hopley Johnny Howard Robbie Kydd Rob Laird Sean Lamont

Ben Lewitt Matt Lord Seamus Mallon Stephen Myler Luke Myring James Percival David Quinlan Bruce Reihana Dan Richmond Mark Robinson Christian Short Tom Smith Carlos Spencer Neil Starling Steve Thompson Soane Tonga'uiha Paul Tupai Ian Vass Chris Wyles

• Ben Cohen
• Steve Thompson
• Dylan Hartley

• Tom Smith (Scotland)
• Soane Tonga'uiha (Tonga and Pacific Islanders 2005 Southen Hemisphere Tour)
• Carlos Spencer (New Zealand, New Zealand Māori and Barbarians)
• Sean Lamont (Scotland)
• Bruce Reihana (New Zealand, New Zealand Māori and Barbarians)
• Mark Robinson (New Zealand and Barbarians)
• David Gerard (France)
• Christian Labit (France)
• Sam Harding (New Zealand and Barbarians)
• Geoff Appleford (England)
• David Quinlan (Ireland)
• Matais Cortese (Argentina)
• Paul Tupai (Samoa)

• Jeff Butterfield (England, British Lions and Barbarians)
• Wayne Shelford (New Zealand)
• Matt Dawson (England and British and Irish Lions)
• James Pritchard (Canada)
• Federico Mendez (Argentina)
• Martin Scelzo (Argentina)
• Pat Lam (Samoa)
• Gary Pearce (England)
• John Olver (England)
• Olivier Brouzet(France)
• Paul Grayson (England)
• Tim Rodber (England)
• Martin Bayfield (England)
• Nick Beal (England)
• Ian Hunter (England)
• Gregor Townsend (Scotland)
• Budge Pountney (Scotland)
• John Leslie (Scotland)

• Heineken Cup 1999/2000
• Middlesex 7s 2003

• Official Site
• BBC site
• Fansite
• Northampton Chronicle and Echo
• Data, results etc about Northampton (in English and in French)

v • d • e Rugby union in England
Federation:	Rugby Football Union
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Domestic Competitions:	Guinness Premiership • EDF Energy Cup • National Division One • National Division Two • National Division Three North • National Division Three South
Guinness Premiership teams:	Bath • Bristol • Gloucester • Harlequins • Leicester Tigers • London Irish • Newcastle Falcons • Northampton Saints • Sale Sharks • Saracens • London Wasps • Worcester Warriors
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