Northampton Saints Academy got back into action at the Malvern Festival this week with a confident display from the current league champions, which saw Saints’ Under-18s and Under-17s both feature across the festival.
Saints Under-18s featured in their first clashes of the season on Monday with matches against both Bath Rugby and Leinster Rugby, while the Club’s Under-17s turned out two sides to play a rotation of six games.
The festival presented the first opportunity of the season for the young Saints to play against competitive opposition ahead of the PREM Rugby U18 Academy League, that starts in earnest in August when Northampton lock horns with Exeter Chiefs at cinch Stadium at Franklin‘s Gardens and Gloucester Rugby on the road.
Malvern has become a well-trodden path for Saints’ up and coming talent, with the likes of Henry Pollock and Archie McParland cutting their teeth at the Festival in recent seasons; and this year’s festival saw the likes of England Under-18s Hugh Sheilds, Jack Lewis, Aiden Reid, Charlie Tamani and Sonny Goode all feature.
On Saints’ performance at the festival, Northampton’s Under-18s Head Coach Charlie Reed said: “I thought it was a good hit out. What I was really pleased with is the way we played throughout the course of the day, and how we got what we wanted to onto the field.
“We played against teams that like to play with a bit of a different tempo, but we didn't drop ours.
“What we're trying to do is align our values of how our Academy plays and how it runs, and try and transfer that onto the pitch, and I think we can be pleased with the way we did that throughout the festival.
“Our big learnings will be around our breakdown and some of our contact skills which we need to tighten up a little bit.
“I’ve also got really good faith in the young lads coming through, I thought the Under-17s who were playing a year up stepped up exceptionally well, we've got some very good lads coming through our pathway.”
Charlie Reed, U18s Head Coach
“With the way the Academy league process is structured this year, we're going to need a lot of bodies representing us, which is great for everyone involved in around their development.
“Getting the best out the lads in terms of performance is what’s most important to us as a coaching group. If we get that performance and we get the result too that’s obviously great but if we don’t get the result but we get boys playing well in a Saints shirt, that’s what I care about.”
Tuesday saw two full squads of Saints Under-17s sides play a rotation of three games each, which provided a brilliant opportunity to test some young and developing talent at a competitive level.
On the Under-17s performances Reed said: “It was a great opportunity for some people to wear the shirt for the first time as an Under-17 player.
“There were brand new combinations, people who haven’t trained a lot with each other. For an initial hit out we put a massive emphasis on our intent and effort which meant working hard for each other, and I thought both teams did that brilliantly.”
