Rising England star Harry Mallinder signs 2020 deal

Northampton Saints may be having an up and down season, but one of their biggest homegrown talents is backing his side.

The East Midlands club have announced that Harry Mallinder has signed a contract extension at Franklin’s Gardens until 2020.

A Northamptonian since 2007, the Saints is the 21 year old's only professional club, Mallinder having come through the Academy setup and won a Premiership Academies League title back in 2014.

A senior debut followed later that year against Newcastle and having quickly established himself as a first team regular, Mallinder has raced to 50 appearances for the Saints, hitting the milestone this past weekend against Clermont Auvergne.

His young career has also been decorated with international honours, the back progressing through the England age groups and captaining the Under-20s to a Junior World title on home soil in 2016, a year in which Mallinder was nominated for the Junior World Player of the Year.

Having toured with Eddie Jones’ senior side to Argentina this past summer, Mallinder is excited about what the future holds.

“The Saints is my only club and I never considered going anywhere else,” he commented. “I’ve grown up at Franklin’s Gardens and experienced some great memories already, both as a player and a young supporter of the club.

“Looking at the environment and the squad we have building here, I’m extremely positive about what is to come over the next few years.

“I’m delighted to be staying.”

Chief Executive Mark Darbon believes that the signing is a big statement from the club.

"Northampton Saints has a proud history of bringing through top quality players from our Academy and Harry certainly falls into this category,” he said.

“We want to build a world class team with a backbone of home grown talent to be successful. Harry has all the abilities to play a big part in this and we are thrilled that he has committed his future to the Saints.”