Craig and Co step up in the cup as Saints continue coaching development

But that development desire also extended to the coaching staff, with Boyd helping to steer the likes of Sam Vesty and Phil Dowson into top jobs at the Gardens.

Dowson, as director of rugby, and Vesty, as head coach, went on to succeed Boyd when he decided to head home in 2022.

And last season, the lessons they had learned bore fruit in a grand manner as Saints claimed their first Premiership crown in 10 years.

But it is not just Dowson and Vesty who continue to flourish at Saints, as every member of the current coaching staff is being given the chance to shine.

Lee Radford, Matt Ferguson, Jake Sharpe, Jim Henry and former Saints lock James Craig continue to make their mark on life at the Gardens.

And in the Premiership Rugby Cup this week, the likes of Sharpe, Henry and Craig will come to the fore, taking on extra duties as they step up for the home clash with Nottingham.

"My role won't particularly change to a large extent through the coaching week but I'll take up some of Dows's director of rugby duties in terms of leading some of the team meetings through the week, then the pre-game talk, half-time chat, so there's not a great deal of change for me there," explained assistant coach Craig.

"Jake Sharpe will lead the attack but he's sat with Sam (Vesty) most weeks assisting him with what he does so, again, not a great deal of change.

"But it's a great opportunity for Sharpey, Jim Henry on the defensive side of the ball, to lead meetings, training sessions with Sam and Radders assisting those guys rather than the other way round.

"It's a good chance for those guys to do it their way and really good for the playing group to have a different voice, a different style lead the week and it refreshes those guys.

"It will hopefully give us a bounce in training, not that we need it, but it just helps to keep you fresh over the course of a long season."

Just as players have come through the ranks at Saints, coaches have joined them on the journey to the top.

"I'd have looked after a lot of the lads who are coming through now when I first joined the Academy," said Craig, who retired from playing to pursue a coaching career at the end of the 2018/19 campaign.

"Someone like Craig Wright, Tommy Lockett, I coached them from Under-16s, have seen them develop through that period of time.

"You work quite closely with those guys and develop good relationships, which helps because we understand each other, we've got a good working relationship and you hopefully build a lot of trust.

"On the playing side as well, that's why we have such a close-knit playing group, because 60 or 70 per cent of them have grown up together.

"Perhaps they don't realise it but the cohesion, the connection that gives the group is a really powerful thing and something a lot of teams would kill for."

Craig, a Premiership and European Challenge Cup winner with Saints in 2014, was always a studious influence in the squad when he was a player.

And he always felt he wanted to be able to help people improve in whatever way he could.

"I wouldn't say I was massively a talker but you clearly pick things up over the course of your playing career and I had a clear view of how I thought the game could and should be played," said Craig, who spent time coaching Bugbrooke Rugby Club and the Saints Academy while he was still a player.

"I had an opinion on things, whether it was right or wrong was up for debate, but I wouldn't have necessarily voiced that because someone else was coaching the team.

"If there was room for a discussion I'd join in but if we were told 'this is the way we're doing it', as a player you've got to get onboard and do it.

"I wouldn't have been a big talker in meetings and stood up front and centre but I wanted to coach and primarily I wanted to help people get better.

"I looked into S&C (strength and conditioning) coaching and started doing a Masters in that while I was playing but that is a very competitive industry and if I was to start that at the end of my playing career, I'd have been a lot further behind than someone starting at 21 who had done a few internships and other things.

"The thing I had experience of was rugby and I knew I wanted to coach and enjoyed that teaching process, working with a group.

"I dipped my toe in that while I was playing and I fell in love with it.

"I still enjoy it to this day."