Northampton Saints go into 'no brainer' partnership with Bedford Blues
Northampton Saints have revealed a strategic partnership with Championship rugby club, Bedford Blues. The new, mutually beneficial collaboration will see Saints and the Blues formally cooperate on a number of playing, coaching and training opportunities.
For the 2020/21 Championship season, Saints will exclusively make a number of academy and senior squad players available to the Championship outfit.
A coaching pathway between the two clubs has also been agreed, where Saints will make high quality, high potential young coaches available to Bedford’s coaching set-up in order for them to gain valuable experience in the second tier of English rugby.
In addition, Blues coaching staff will benefit from attending regular upskilling sessions with senior Saints coaches held at Franklin’s Gardens. The partnership also allows for joint training sessions between the two clubs when advantageous.
“I am delighted to be able to announce Saints’ strategic partnership with a club of the calibre of Bedford Blues,” said Northampton Saints Chief Executive, Mark Darbon.
“Like Saints, Bedford has a long and proud history, with close ties to its local community, so we believe it’s a natural fit.”
“The new partnership will be mutually beneficial, aiming to bring greater benefits to players and coaching staff at both clubs, as well as helping both organisations financially.
“We very much see this as a long-term relationship, which we hope could evolve further over time.”
As part of the relationship, an annual pre-season fixture will also now be played, alternating each season between Franklin’s Gardens and Goldington Road, home of the Bedford Blues.
“Saints has a long history of producing high quality, homegrown talent and it is fundamentally important that this continues to be the case,” said Saints Director of Rugby, Chris Boyd.
“Our new relationship with Bedford ensures that we can continue to develop our best young players by securing them regular Championship game time in a highly-competitive environment.
“Having got to know Mike Rayer and some of the Blues coaches I’m confident that we’re working with excellent people who share a similar philosophy on rugby and I’m excited about what we can do together.”
Bedford Blues Chairman, Geoff Irvine said: “We are very pleased to be able to make this announcement, not only does the relationship give us fantastic access to their players and resources, but it is a lifeline to our Club in the present situation.
“Saints is the natural fit, our near neighbours with a shared passion for history and heritage. This long-term partnership will help safeguard our Championship status and allow us to build for the seasons ahead.
“The decision was influenced by the challenging financial situation we face, not least as a result of the cuts announced by the RFU earlier this year and the uncertainty about future funding.”
Bedford Blues Director of Rugby, Mike Rayer added: “Given the current circumstances and longer-term picture, the partnership with Saints is a no brainer.
“Conversations with Chris Boyd have been really positive and it’s a great opportunity for more collaborative thinking and progression. It’s clear we share a similar rugby philosophy and that will form the basis of a strong relationship.
“We will be working with some of the best youngsters in the country through the Saints pathway, and together with our retained squad it should give us a great balance. There are already several links in the Saints coaching setup so it’s a really natural fit and one we are very excited about.”
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Yeah me too. I think the Welsh have it in them to make it a contest in the first half. Give the boks' second stringers a headache. Disrupting lineouts is one area the welsh could cause problems. Bok lineouts have been subpar.
And then fronting up in the collisions and at the rucks. If the boks get the ascendancy there too early, it could be a hiding. Jaden hendrikse had a tough game against the Scots - who were very good at disrupting the boks flow. The welsh would have taken note of this i'm sure.
But the bok bench will finish the welsh off i'm afraid.
Go to commentsYes, certainly. As an AB fan happy to be included in that top 3 of "matches that are routinely decided by one score" now, we were well outside that for a few years.
They have not had enough games yet. You can't undo so many poor years just like that. Asking for miracles like SA losing is not the way to get back to number 1.
They might get there as those bad years filter out of the rankings but it's guarenteed to be great fun going back and forth with SA once that happens.
Admittedly Foster only really had one bad year (21/22 season), but that's more likely because COVID stopped a lot of tough games from being played, and effected the other countries they did play far more than themselves.
A real shame we both don't get to see it unfold first with our regions teams in SR!
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