Coles looks to bring ‘fresh energy’ into Gloucester clash

Northampton Saints lock Alex Coles is looking for the men in Green, Black and Gold to bring an extra level of excitement as they take on Gloucester on Sunday.

Saints started their 2025/26 Gallagher PREM campaign with a Round 1 33-33 draw at a sold-out cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens.

The hosts led 33-7 at the break following a strong performance in the opening 40 minutes, which saw Coles score the opening points of Northampton’s PREM season with a powerful close-range finish. However, the Chiefs fought back to come away with a share of the points on offer.

“There was a real buzz about coming back to cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens,” Coles said.

“We were really excited to be back at home after our pre-season games being away from home. You saw that about the way we started, with really high energy, high intensity.

“But we let ourselves down in the second half with some accuracy stuff, and we coughed the ball up way too many times.”

“It was a frustrating game. One of those draws that feels like a loss because of how the game panned out, how strongly we started and then not being able to follow it through in the second half. We found that really frustrating.

“We’ve looked at what went wrong in terms of losing our momentum in the second half and what went well in the first half that we need to keep doing and making sure we don’t drop off. 

“Pretty much from there, it’s about switching focus to the next game.

“We’re disappointed with the result and the second-half performance, but we’re really happy with some of the stuff we did show. We’re trying to move on and bring a load of fresh energy and excitement into a new week.”

Saints now turn their attention to their first away fixture of the Gallagher PREM season as they make the trip to Kingsholm, the location of their final fixture of the 2024/25 season.

“I love playing at Kingsholm,” Coles added. “The atmosphere is always really quite feisty, and I quite like that because it brings the best out of people. 

“I’m looking forward to getting another strong atmosphere to help drive some of that energy and emotion that you need in a rugby game.

“It’s the first away game of the PREM season, so we’re looking forward to bringing some of the lessons we learned about playing away from home in pre-season into the first PREM away game.

“We’ve had a real look at the games we did well in and the games we didn’t do so well in away from home, and we’ve taken the lessons from that because it is a very different feel.

“You often don’t get the rub of the green, and you can sometimes feel like your back’s up against the wall away from home, so you’ve got to get used to living in that hostile environment, thriving in it, enjoying it and enjoying trying to make an upset and be the underdogs.”

On a personal note for Coles, he’s gained further international recognition in recent season’s, making his Six Nations debut in 2024 as well as starting all three of England’s summer tests against Argentina and the USA now sitting on 10 caps.

“I’ve learned a lot and matured a lot, particularly in my mindset around the game,” the 26-year-old continued.

“I’m much more consistent in terms of my headspace and mentality going into a game. I’ve learned some good tips about how to make sure you’re on it in every training session and every game.

“Particularly going into that England environment, you see some of those operators at the top level, and you take things from them about how they’re able to turn up with that same level of intensity every day.

“I’ve tried to be really purposeful about my learning on the mental side of the game, and I think that’s paying some dividends now in terms of being able to build yourself up week in, week out in what can be quite an attritional season.

“I’ve learned there are roadblocks along the way, but I still feel like there’s a lot of development left in my game, and physically, I can develop more. I've obviously been working really hard on the mental side of the game as well, so hopefully there’s a lot more to come, but we’ll see.”