Phil Dowson: ‘Academy players will always be key to Northampton Saints’
Northampton Saints’ incoming director of rugby Phil Dowson has stressed the importance of his club continuing to be a side with a core of local players as the former back row gets set for his first season in charge of the east midlands club.
Dowson takes over the top spot from Chris Boyd, who is set to move back to New Zealand, after a number of years as assistant coach at the club who finished fourth last year.
“The club is built on the academy and we’ve talked about being a club that can develop people,” Dowson told City PM “You see the number of guys who have played for England who come through our academy system on the summer tour, that doesn’t change.
“We’ve got to make sure that the core of our squad are Northampton or local lads and then we add quality players around them and that’s what I’m trying to do from a recruitment point of view.
“All of those guys who’ve signed in the first two months of pre-season have been outstanding in terms of incorporating themselves into the Saints way and making sure that they know exactly what to expect.”
Northampton’s season ended with a surprise appearance in the semi-finals – where they lost to eventual Premiership winners Leicester Tigers – after they looked down and out in the early months of the calendar year.
Following a surprise loss to Gloucester, former director of rugby Boyd conceded that his side were out of it but the club then went on a seven-match winning run to make the top four.
“We’d love to be in a situation this year where we’re not under that pressure,” Dowson added. “I think it speaks volumes about the ambition of the club, and the players in particular, who you want to push on and, and achieve something.
“My expectations are that we want to improve and get better and as a club go forward. It’s very difficult before the season to say you know exactly what you want to do in terms of where you want to end up in the league, because there’s 13 other directors of rugby trying to do it or say similar sort of stuff.”
Dowson’s Saints remain a little bit of an unknown, with one playing source at the club telling City PM of their reservations surrounding the new coaching set up – which also sees Sam Vesty move into a senior role.
The club have, however, been linked with a move for fly-half Fin Smith from troubled Worcester Warriors with Saints’ international No10 Dan Biggar potentially off at the end of the year.
“I think with what’s going on at Worcester, it’s probably best to focus on making sure that we’re set up for the league and we start as we mean to go on from next week onwards,” he said.