Defence coach Radford reflects on 'surreal' first season at Saints

A struggling defence was transformed last season, to the extent that the black, green and gold secured their first Premiership title since 2014.

They went from porous to powerful as they moved to the top of the charts that mattered, including the Premiership regular-season standings.

Saints completed more tackles than any other side in the 2023/24 season (2905) and did so while maintaining a tackle success rate at least three percentage points higher than any other team in the league (89.5 per cent).

Defence coach Radford got the black, green and gold players to buy into his plan - and it paid the greatest dividends as they not only won the Premiership but also reached the semi-finals of the Investec Champions Cup, having previously lost their past 10 matches in that competition.

When asked for the secret to the success of his stunning first season at Saints, Radford joked: “If it’s an idiot’s guide, then I’d say I didn’t make a tackle all season and I didn’t miss one either!

"But the playing group has bought in massively.

"When you’ve got such a young group who are so keen to get better - like we do at Northampton - you’re onto a winner anyway.

“Thankfully we saw results early from some of the things we changed and the buy-in from then on was phenomenal. It gathered momentum.

"I think we had the most tackles in the Premiership in the whole season and highest success rate as well.

“It was surreal: previously, the less tackles you made the better chance you had of success but we were a bit of an outlier this year.”

Saints had some tough encounters before beating Bath 25-21 in the Premiership final earlier this month.

And Radford feels the experience of matches against the likes of Harlequins and Leinster stood them in good stead.

He said: "A couple of things happened (to help). We played Harlequins at Twickenham six weeks ago. Although it was a s*** day losing to them (41-32), a lot of lads had never played at Twickenham before. That experience helped us ahead of the Premiership final.

"Obviously, the following week to Quins we lost the European semi to Leinster (20-17) as well. That was painful but a real learning experience, too.

"We gained massive amounts from both losses in a strange sort of way.

"It was great to finish it off.

"Northampton had been there or thereabouts the last few seasons but not just been able to get across the big one of the semi-final.

"So it was unbelievable to savour that one of winning at Twickenham.”

Radford moved to Saints from rugby league, in which he famously led Hull to their first Wembley win in 2016 and retained the Challenge Cup 12 months later.

And he says the scenes in Northampton after Saints' Premiership title win were very similar.

“I was lucky enough to be in Hull in 2016 and 2017 and saw the turn-out for that,” Radford said. “Northampton was very, very similar.

"The whole town was there in the centre: there was plenty of alcohol supped, smiles on faces and a lot of waving of the trophy!

“This was very similar to that Challenge Cup experience but it just felt a little bit bigger. There were 81,000 there (at Twickenham) and it was incredible."

Though several long-serving players will leave the club this summer, Saints are now determined not to take a step back following their title success.

And Radford said: “I’m contracted with Northampton for another two years and hopefully I can stay here a little bit longer.

"I’ve absolutely loved my time here. It’s been a real eye-opener for me on how to do things differently. I know I’ll be a better coach for it, for sure.

"It’s been a whirlwind 12 months but one I’ve really enjoyed.”