Only 81 players in the history of Northampton Saints had made a double century of appearances in Black, Green and Gold before Saturday’s Gallagher PREM clash with Gloucester Rugby.
The match was already a poignant affair, with Saints bidding farewell to departing players after the full-time whistle, but there was cause to celebrate long before the 36-32 result went Northampton’s way at cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens – as Rory Hutchinson became the 82nd man to lead the team out on his 200th appearance for the Club.
The longest serving member of Saints’ current squad, Hutchinson became Saint #1952 back in January 2015, coming off the bench against Leicester Tigers in the PREM Rugby Cup.
Since then, the 30-year-old’s career has taken him from Saints’ Academy through to a PREM title win, an Investec Champions Cup final last season and seen him collect 11 Scotland caps.
“It is crazy,” Hutchinson said of the impressive milestone.
“I remember in my first year, Dusty [Hare] and Hoppers [Mark Hopley] called me into the office and told me I might not be here in my second year because I hadn’t taken it too seriously.
“But everything happens for a reason and I’m very grateful to be able to run out at home, especially on my 200, so hopefully there’s more to come.”
The occasion of his 200th appearance was a far from perfect one for Hutchinson and his teammates, who found themselves trailing eighth-place Gloucester by a point with just four minutes left on the clock.
A win was what Saints needed to secure themselves that all-important home advantage in the PREM’s knockout stages, but a resurgent Gloucester made sure Northampton’s task was not an easy one.
The Cherry and Whites had pulled out to a 12-0 lead early on, and while George Hendy and Fin Smith’s efforts put Saints back ahead, the sides would exchange another score apiece to enter the sheds level pegging at 19-19.
That equalising effort had come from milestone man Hutchinson and another came from departing Sam Graham in a fitting send off for the back rower, while Tommy Freeman wrapped up his 16th PREM try of the season to equal the Club’s record for the most in a single term – a record previously held by Chris Ashton.
But the men in Black, Green and Gold were made to wait for the fairytale finish until the game’s 79th minute, when Smith’s deft tip-on let George Furbank cut through Gloucester’s defence and over the whitewash to rousing ‘Shoe Army’ chants.
Despite the result ultimately going their way, it was all a little too close for comfort for Hutchinson, and he admitted that Saints were left frustrated with their performance.
He said: “It was kind of a repeat of Bath at home.
“We’ll be disappointed with that and I’m not sure whether we’ve put our finger on what went wrong, whether we got the week right in the build up. But there’s plenty to take away from it.
“I can only speak about myself and I was looking forward to getting out there because I love playing in front of the fans.
“It was the last home game of the [regular] season, paying some serious respect to lads who have given a lot to this club, so that was my motivation.
“We saw a stat during the week that 86 percent of semi-finals are won by the home team so it’s a big motivation for us.
“But we don’t want to look too far in the future, we want to focus what’s coming week on week.”