Champions Cup final: Northampton vs Bordeaux-Begles preview

“My mum even mentions it!” scrum-half Mitchell told BBC Radio Northampton’s The Saints Show.

“She says ‘you guys are so close’.

“In the academy the bonding is natural – the club have four or five houses and you are hanging around each other’s the whole time.”

Dingwall and Mitchell are now senior figures.

As well as their own homes, they have upgraded to the ‘Mayfair’ section of the Franklin’s Gardens dressing room – distant from the toilets, a little more spacious – since the departure of Lewis Ludlam, Courtney Lawes and Alex Waller last summer.

But the band-of-brothers ethos remains strong, replenished by new blood.

There are team trips, communal holidays, late-night pranks, external and, earlier this month, there was a meal.

Dingwall smilingly put aside his own disappointment of missing out to host a celebration, external for Mitchell, Fin Smith, Tommy Freeman and Henry Pollock on their call-ups to the British and Irish Lions squad.

The loss of senior voices in the summer has made room for others in the huddle – a different generation riffing on the same togetherness.

“George Furbank is a quality captain, very similar to Dingwall, he can send a rocket up you if needed,” said Mitchell when asked about dressing room leaders.

“Fin Smith is really good. Henry Pollock loves effing and jeffing, but brings huge energy .

“Alex Coles is really good and Curtis Langdon will be first over the top to get at the opposition.”

On Saturday the opposition is Bordeaux-Begles – another team arriving with a higher wage bill and shorter odds.

Can Saints find the words to sum up their connection and snuff out the stars once more?

In a final of fine margins, it could be the difference.

“I’m sure every other dressing room will say the same thing, and it is no disrespect to the other team,” said Dingwall.

“I just fully believe that the group we have this year is so bought into what we’re trying to do, so connected emotionally off the pitch, that you get 1% extra fight out of people.

“That goes a long way.”