Saints to announce 'two or maybe three' new signings

Chris Boyd says Saints will announce 'two or maybe three' new signings ahead of next season.
Chris Boyd (picture: Peter Short)Chris Boyd (picture: Peter Short)
Chris Boyd (picture: Peter Short)

And the club will also be looking to hand new contracts to 'six or seven' current squad members.

Saints dished out a large number of fresh deals during 2020, meaning their squad is a largely settled one.

But there is a little room for new recruits.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

When speaking about recruitment, Boyd said: "We've nailed our cloth to the mast in a lot of ways because we have a significant number of players contracted out to 2023/24 so a lot of our youngsters, who we have a lot of belief and trust in, have long-term contracts.

"But there's certainly some holes to fill.

"We've got some really good youngsters coming out of the Academy - Tommy Freeman is an example - and in time they will do well so we've got to be slightly patient.

"We were the youngest squad in the Premiership this year by a year, which is quite significant, and our squad will continue to be young for the next couple of years.

"We have been busy in the past couple of weeks with about six or seven contract renewals where we're hoping to get some key players who are out of contract renewed.

"We're not looking for a lot to come externally.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"We're probably going to announce at some stage two or maybe three new people to the Saints but otherwise it's a pretty stable squad."

Boyd has outlined Saints' recruitment strategy.

He added: "Our strapline for our recruitment is young, high potential and English.

"If we can have a youngster that's got high potential and he's English, that's our first-choice target.

"We will only go to the international market where we feel we can't find what we're looking for in our own squad or our own Academy or inside England.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"If we can't find the right person at the right price to do the right job, we might have to go to South Africa or New Zealand or Georgia or Europe or anywhere - it's a very global game here.

"In New Zealand, you basically had to be a New Zealander to play Super Rugby because you were only allowed three foreigners and most of those are actually New Zealand boys who were born in New Zealand but who had access to Polynesian passports.

"Once they played international for another country, they were treated as foreigners.

"Here, it's not the same and it's a very global market.

"But our focus, like it is with our strength and conditioning, our medical people, our coaches, it's a drive that Northampton Saints wants to be like a teaching hospital where we have a hotbed of local talent across our staff and our players."

A message from the Editor:

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper when you do your weekly shop.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you