Champions Saints swoop to sign Hodgson

The 21-year-old is moving to Franklin’s Gardens primarily as a scrum-half, but is also comfortable at fly-half.

Hodgson played for England Under-18s at scrum-half, has spent his entire career at Kingston Park and has played for the Falcons in the Aviva Premiership, the LV= Cup, the Championship and also in Europe.

Saints director of rugby Jim Mallinder is delighted Hodgson has signed, and believes the player can add competition in the Saints’ scrum-half roster.

“Scrum-half is a specialist position where you need a lot of depth, especially when you have the likes of Kahn Fotuali’i and Lee Dickson away regularly with Samoa and England,” said Mallinder.

“Joel is a talented young English player, and he will provide stiff competition for Alex Day, who himself won the Junior World Championships with England just 12 months ago.

“We certainly view Joel as a player who has a lot of potential and we’re looking forward to seeing him develop at Franklin’s Gardens.”