Hot prospect Gillespie ready to put the pressure on at Saints

The 19-year-old is viewed as a hot prospect at Franklin's Gardens and also at international level, having recently represented England Under-20s.

He became Saints' youngest ever player in the professional era, at the age of 18 years and 15 days, when he came off the bench in a Premiership Rugby Cup game at Wasps in November 2018.

Former Millfield School pupil Gillespie has also featured in the Premiership Rugby 7s series for Saints.

And now he would love to make a regular step up to the first team, having joined the Senior Academy ahead of this season.

“The big thing now is to work hard at Saints and try to learn as much as I can from our other wingers like Tom Collins and Taqele Naiyaravoro," Gillespie told the Rugby Paper recently.

"They’re good mentors but I’ll try to put a bit of pressure on them when we get back playing.”

Gillespie has an interesting back-story as he was born in Sydney but raised in Singapore, where he played football before discovering rugby.

He joined the Centaurs club, who boast some hugely successful junior sides, before eventually making the move to England and attending Millfield School at the age of 15.

He was initially given a chance by Bath but was not kept on, and Saints spotted their chance to snap up a player of strong pedigree.

Gillespie has gone on to learn his trade during a successful loan spell at Championship club Ampthill and he is now eager to make a big impression in the Saints first team.

“I never played rugby until I was 11 or 12, but at Centaurs we had one of the best junior set-ups in Singapore and my team went two years unbeaten," Gillespie explained.

"We played a lot of tournaments in places like Thailand and Malaysia, so that was fun.

“My parents had travelled to Australia and Singapore through work, which explains my unusual upbringing, but, when I was 15, I came to England and went to Millfield.

“I was in Bath’s academy but that didn’t really work out. If I’m honest, I didn’t play well enough and after they dropped me, I thought I probably wouldn’t get another shot at pro rugby.

"I was just thinking about playing social rugby, but then Northampton gave me fresh hope.

“Simon Sinclair, their academy manager at the time, asked me to come here and he really pushed my development.

"Within three months or so I got into the England Under-17s development squad and from thinking I had no future in the game, things progressed from there.

“I got my Saints debut in the Premiership Cup in 2018. I was still at Millfield but it was our half-term and Simon told me to come to the club. I trained through the week and was then lucky enough to be named in the 23 for the Wasps game.

“I got 15 minutes off the bench at the Ricoh, managed to get myself involved a bit and we won with a try in the last seconds, so that was memorable.

"At the time I didn’t realise I’d become Northampton’s youngest player but it’s quite a cool record to have.”