Saints and England star Furbank now feels fully at home on the biggest of stages

He had impressed plenty of times before, but the 2023/24 season was one in which he became a consistent force for club and country.

Having bulked up in pre-season, the full-back took the bull by the horns.

He shone week after week for Saints, taking more and more responsbility in the 15 and 10 shirts.

Furbank was skipper in the absence of club captain Lewis Ludlam and remains unbeaten in that role following a stunning run of winter results.

And when England came calling, this time he was able to keep hold of the shirt rather than relinquishing it.

Furbank looked so comfortable on the big stage.

Gone was the imposter syndrome that he felt during his first experience with England.

This was his time, and he made the most of it, propelling Saints to Gallagher Premiership glory while shining for the Red Rose in the Guinness Six Nations and during the Summer Series in Japan and New Zealand.

A quad injury meant he couldn't feature in the second and final Test against the All Blacks, but Furbank is now fit again, ready to fire into a new season at Saints.

"I feel pretty good," he said.

"I obviously had a bit of a niggle on the tour but I've had five weeks to recover so I'm feeling good now.

"I just got a tight quad, nothing serious.

"I had a couple of good breaks - went to Santorini with my girlfriend for a few days and then had a trip to Marbella with some school mates. They were quite different trips, but both good times.

"It was nice to get away. I needed it.

"Off-season is a lot about head space.

"I felt pretty mentally fatigued. It had been a 13-month season from the start of pre-season to finishing the tour so I definitely needed some mental recovery.

"Just getting away from rugby entirely was good and now I feel fresh and ready to go again.

"Pre-season is about mental learnings and we've got a sports psychologist who is going to be with us a lot more now so he's going to help us.

"It's also about getting your body back up to scratch and last pre-season we put on a decent amount of weight, which helped us massively, so the boys are going to be working hard to do the same this pre-season.

"I struggled to keep weight on during the off-season. Some boys balloon and others lose weight so I've probably got a kilo or so to put on.

"Once I get back into the swing of things, I'll be back to where I was."

That will be music to the ears of Saints and England fans, who have been so impressed with the strides that Furbank has taken in recent times.

He started to get regular Saints game time following the arrival of Chris Boyd in 2018 and made his Test debut in a Six Nations game against France in 2020.

But he couldn't keep hold of that full-back role with the Red Rose and had to work hard to regain it.

Regain it he did, with his stellar showings last season making Furbank impossible to ignore.

And he clearly now feels like he belongs at the highest level of the game, with he and his young Saints team-mates developing in fantastic fashion.

"It felt like I was back to where I wanted to be with my rugby last season," Furbank said.

"I had a season before that where I was performing okay but I wasn't at my best.

"Last season brought the best out of me.

"I don't know what it was, whether it was the long pre-season that helped me focus on my game, that captaincy role definitely gave me an extra hunger and drive.

"I felt like I was back to where I wanted to be and it felt like the first time I felt like I deserved to be playing for England.

"Before then, I was happy to be in the squad but I didn't necessarily feel like I deserved to be there.

"But this time I felt I was in good enough form and playing well enough to be there."

Furbank was one of the players of the season in the Premiership as Saints went on to claim Gallagher Premiership glory.

He celebrated in fine style following the final victory against Bath at Twickenham, but he had to come back down to earth quickly as he only had a couple of days before heading into camp with England ahead of the trip to Japan and New Zealand.

"We didn't have too much time to reflect on it (winning the title), going straight from that into tour," Furbank said.

"It's been a bit of a weird one because it's probably still not fully sunk in in a way.

"It was obviously an amazing occasion, an amazing day, one I'm never going to forget but it was also weird going straight from that then switching into England mode."

Furbank returned to Saints with his fellow international stars last week, though the majority of the squad were off.

Now they are all back together as they bid to build on their success.

And Furbank said: "It's been our first week back in with the whole squad and you've got to take the memories from what happened last season.

"A lot of this team now can say we're winners, we've played in big games.

"We've obviously lost the likes of Courts (Courtney Lawes) and Sue (Alex Waller) who had done it before and could say they were winners. We drew on their experience a lot and now there's quite a few of us in that boat.

"We're going to have to really step up and use that experience from last season to really drive us through this season.

"Obviously they (Lawes, Waller etc) are going to be a big miss - there's world class players who have left - but we've also filled out with a lot of talent as well.

"We've got a lot of new guys who are going to bring a lot of hunger and energy, and our squad age has probably dropped a bit with Courts and Sue leaving!

"It's an exciting place to be again.

"We'll draw from last year but ultimately we've got a new squad and new learnings to take this year."

Furbank added: "There's a group of us who had to step up last year as well, and I feel like we took a big onus on ourselves to become more player led.

"It was something we spoke about at the start of the season, not being spoon fed by the coaches, which we felt we were before.

"We're going to have to take an even bigger step up this year with the loss of Courts, Sue, Luds, who you could look at to do that.

"Now we've got other boys, the likes of Curt Langdon, Sammy Graham, who are now stepping into that role as well so it's a good place to be."

And if Furbank is asked to skipper Saints again, he is more than ready!

"I love it," said the 27-year-old.

"It probably just gives me an extra hunger and desire.

"When you're captain, boys look to you and your actions.

"It gave me an extra hunger and desire to be playing at the top of my game.

"It definitely brought the best out of me."

Saints will play two home pre-season games - against Bedford Blues and Leinster - before they kick off their Premiership title defence with a mouthwatering trip to face the team they beat in last season's final.

So will we see more of the same from the black, green and gold when they travel to Bath on September 20?

"I don't think we're going to change too much with our game plan," Furbank said.

"There will probably be a few different bits that (Sam) Vesty and Radders (Lee Radford) will look to bring in but last year we focused a lot on ourselves and this year is going to be no different.

"I feel like we've got a game plan where if we execute to our ability, we'll go and win the majority of matches.

"It's about performing on the day.

"We never want to be stagnant but nothing massively is going to change."