The youthful vigour of the Northampton Saints side that defeated Harlequins was ‘contagious’, according to matchday captain Sam Graham.
Despite only being 28 years of age himself, the powerful back rower was a comparative veteran in the squad that he skippered to a 26-17 victory over Harlequins at cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens.
Amongst the five players made their debut in the bonus point success were Academy youngsters Ollie Scola, Tom Rowe, Aiden Ainsworth-Cave and Loughborough University loanee, Jamie Bennett.
“In a really great way, their energy is contagious,” said Graham. “They’re so hungry to get out and play and it almost takes you back to being a kid again just playing your first game.
“I said to a few of the boys before they went out, there’s a lot of nervous energy and a lot of excitement, which is a great place for us to be but you’ll never ever forget running out in front of the lights at cinch Stadium.
Winger Rowe didn’t take long to announce himself in Black, Green and Gold as he latched onto Anthony Belleau’s clever break through centre field to score under the posts before a joyous Barwell Stand after just two minutes.
Graham said: “Shoutout to Tom whose come in, a young guy, 18, at Loughborough Uni, and with his first touch of the ball, scores in the bottom right corner at cinch Stadium – what’s better than that?”
It was Graham himself who added Northampton’s second try before the hosts added two more after the break, through Fyn Brown and 18-year-old, James Pater.
The win means Saints have maximum points from two rounds – following their 34-49 win at Saracens in September – entering the bye week before returning for more Cup action when Newcastle Red Bulls visit cinch Stadium on Saturday 15 November.
“It’s a great opportunity as a squad, these guys have been training together for the last however many weeks and so hungry to get the opportunity to play,” added Graham.
“You might not be in the 23 for the PREM games but they’re still so hungry to be there, they’re getting better every day training together. It’s not like we’re just chucked together for one week, we’ve had a long period training together and I felt like we were well prepared.
“I think that showed in moments, it was a bit scrappy at times and of course there’s loads to get better but that’s so exciting, there’s a massive ceiling.
“I think we’ve come to know the way that us as Saints want to play, we want to play at a high tempo.
“Unfortunately, that was kind of taken out of our hands but what we did quite well was when we did get the opportunity to put tempo on them, we did. We can’t control the opposition, we can only control what we’re doing and unfortunately it was slow at times, but I think we proved just how dangerous we were when we get what we want.”