Premiership preview: Northampton Saints begin new chapter

For most Northampton Saints supporters, that weekend in early June has a dreamlike, ethereal quality.

It was an end to a season that felt too good to be true. A second Premiership title proved the perfect finish for those three great stalwarts of the club – Courtney Lawes, Alex Waller and Lewis Ludlam.

An afternoon of agony and tension – totally unenjoyable until Christophe Ridley blew the final whistle at Twickenham to signal their 25-21 victory over Bath.

And then there was the party it unleashed – starting in the bars at Franklin’s Gardens that night and spilling over into the Sunday, as the streets of Northampton were lined with supporters cheering their heroes in open-top buses.

It was a stunning end to a joyful campaign, with Saints at times playing the most brilliant attacking rugby with a bit of extra bite in defence which saw them home.

But they don’t want to talk much about last season now at the Gardens.

Try to ask director of rugby Phil Dowson or head coach Sam Vesty about it and they’ll quickly move the conversation on. That’s history, they’ll tell you. Great teams win two in a row.

And although when you go back to Franklin’s Gardens there’s part of you that’s taken back to those heady days of last season, you’re also struck by what’s missing.

Lawes, Waller and Ludlam were huge figures on and off the pitch at the club. As was Paul Hill, Alex Moon and others. It’s an awful lot of experience that has gone.