Scotland and British Lions coach Ian McGeechan took over as director of rugby in 1994 only to see the side plunge into Division Two. They returned after one season with a 100 per cent league record. McGeechan had an outstanding reputation as a coach, underlining that by taking the Lions to South Africa in 1997 and winning the series 2-1. He took with him five Saints’ Lions – Rodber, Grayson, Beal, Townsend and Dawson, the latter of whom went on to score a superb solo try in the opening test and added another in the last test.

When the game turned professional in 1995, local entrepreneur Keith Barwell, who had made his fortune by building up a chain of free newspapers, bought the club for £1 million. Mr Barwell continued ploughing his money into the club and was rewarded for his efforts when Saints won the Heineken Cup in 2000 and became a profit-making business in 2002.

The man that helped lead the team to victory was 1997/98 player of the year Pat Lam, who was signed from Newcastle Falcons, alongside Argentinean hooker Freddie Mendez and South African World Cup 1995 medal winner Garry Pagel. All three were instrumental in helping Saints secure second place in the Allied Dunbar Premiership and a first-ever European cup place. The Saints may have gone one better but for a bad run at the beginning of the year when the Franklin’s Gardens pitch hindered the side’s running game when it was turned into a quagmire after weeks of heavy rain that flooded St James.

Ian McGeechan left after the 1998/99 season to take over the helm of the Scottish national side, the job he described as the only one in rugby he would leave Northampton for. Former Saints’ fly-half John Steele was appointed to the position after the club was besieged with applications for the job from across the world, many from coaches who had experience at the highest level of the game. Steele had impressed while in a similar role at London Scottish, where he had kept them in the top flight with very limited resources.

Two more proven internationals arrived at the club for the 1999/2000 season – experienced Wales and Lions centre Allan Bateman and colossal Argentinean prop Martin Scelzo – and despite a large contingent of the club’s leading lights being absent on World Cup 1999 duty, Saints made a good start to the season under the temporary guidance of Don Mackinnon.

Saints were on course for an unprecedented treble of silverware under Steele’s guidance and the inspirational leadership of skipper Lam, but for a horrendous fixture pile-up put paid to the club’s league ambitions. Despite the exhausting schedule, Saints produced two remarkable cup runs to reach the finals of both the Tetley’s Bitter Cup and the Heineken Cup at the first attempt.

The Tetley’s final produced heartbreak as Saints went down to Wasps, but just two weeks later, the club enjoyed the greatest day in its history at Twickenham in the final of the European cup. In front of almost 70,000  people and watched by a worldwide television audience of more than 60 million, Saints edged out Munster 9-8. The celebrations lasted several days including an open-top bus parade through the lined streets of Northampton.

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