Northampton Saints are in the midst of some inspired form. Back to back wins in the Champions Cup saw the Saints march up to Scotland and hand Glasgow Warriors a rare home defeat, before recording a dramatic victory over Toulon last Friday evening.
Saints back-rower Graham praised his teammates in Northampton’s mid-week press conference, and highlighted three players who all had starring roles in the win over Toulon. Legendary Northampton lock Courtney Lawes took the Player of the Match Award, fullback George Furbank contributed two vital tries, and new-coming flanker Tom Pearson ran out a solid effort ahead of his push for further England contention. Beginning with Lawes, Graham talked about how the retired England star is a true locker room leader, and is a constant source of inspiration to the 23-year-old.
“He’s like Benjamin Button, I genuinely think he just gets better and better. It’s not what we’re about, but genuinely, he is someone who could quite easily just not care as he’s done it all. It’s a real credit to him, he’s not fussed about doing the pretty stuff. He is getting his head in the places that really hurt, and just little effort things like chasing down their back row to make that try saving tackle, that just speaks volumes about Courtney. He’s an awesome player to play alongside, and we’re very lucky to have him.”
Whilst Lawes will not be adding to his 105 England caps, there is contention for Furbank and Pearson to get back into the fold. Whilst Furbank has made six appearances for his country, his last run out came in the 2022 Six Nations defeat against France. Pearson made his test match debut over the Summer as apart of the World Cup wider training squad, yet was let go by Steve Borthwick after the defeat to Wales in Cardiff.
“I think he’s proved to a lot of people as to why he (George Furbank) found England caps at such a young age. But he’s taken his game to a different level. You know, he’s not the biggest bloke, but his physicality and aggression on both sides of the ball this year have been second to none. He’s been unbelievable.
“Also the leadership space, I think that’s really helped his game. He leads the boys very well, he’s got total respect from everyone in the change room, and he’s driving us in the right direction. You’d like to think that as well as he’s paying for Saints, and the people that matter (England), are looking at him and seeing just how much he’s offering. Yeah, once again, we’re very lucky to have him, he’s a massive asset to the group.”
“It’s been clear to see that he’s (Tom Pearson) settled in quite well. Everything he touches seems to turn to gold. When he’s getting his hands on the ball, he makes us as a team play much better. I think having someone with his abilities through our game, he’s fits in quite well in terms of keeping the ball alive with his offloads with his running lines.
“It is good to see that he’s not really had any dip in his performance at all. That’s the standard of an international player that we want. It’s brilliant for me on a personal level, because I get to play with these guys week in week out. It definitely brings me up to be at my best as well, and long may that continue.”
After starring in the opening Champions Cup fortnight, Northampton now turn their attention to a return to Premiership action, with Gloucester lined up as their next opponents. The Saints make the trip over to Kingsholm on Saturday, and begin their accession up to the play off spots in the Gallagher Premiership table. Currently sat at fifth, Graham recognises how his side’s recent form is not reflected in their standings amongst the English top flight, and is ready for the threats to come from the Cherry and Whites this weekend.
“I think you could probably look at it (the table) and see fifth and think ‘right, OK, we are out of the top four.’ But realistically you look at how close it is, we know that we’re in the right place. Obviously, there are a couple of results that we felt as if we missed out on. But yeah, going back into the prep work, we’re laser focused on the job at hand. It’s going to be a tough game, I know, Gloucester haven’t had the most results recently, but we know just how good of a team they are. We proved that last year when they played us at our place (41-34 Northampton win).
“We were so good for 90% of that game, then the last 10 minutes, we just switched off, and they scored three quick drives. We know what they’re about, they’ve got lots of threats, they’re back three, razor sharp. Zach Mercer is obviously a very good player, someone who’s stock has gone through the roof in recent years. We know that going away from home, we’ve got to be on the money to come out with the results. So there’s no complacency here, we know we’ve got to do.”
“Obviously, we know that they are a threat. I think the big thing for us is that it’s similar to what I said about Zach (Mercer), that we’ve got to be better as a team. If we do our small bits as a team together, they’ll make a big difference in this game. If we connect in on every kick chase, and we do that for 80 minutes, and we don’t let someone just get slap-back and all of a sudden (it’s) broken field. They’ll punish us, and that’s the sort of collective effort (we need). I feel like those are the areas that we’ve been strong in so far this season and had a lot of growth, which has put us in a good position. So we just need more of the same really.”
Highlighted as one of the Gloucester danger-men to keep quiet, back-row battler Zach Mercer has had an impressive start to life at Kingsholm. After tearing up the Top 14 with star making Montpellier performances, Mercer headed to the Premiership in pursuit of his England career that has yet avoided him. A decision which left England fans scratching their heads, Mercer missed out on the trip to France for the Rugby World Cup, yet has since ran out un-ignorable performances in Cherry and White. Speaking on his opponent for the weekend, Graham said;
“Well, I mean, he’s a very skilful player, isn’t he? I think it was something ridiculous like, he had 25 carries on the weekend or something like that. And obviously, off the back of not not being in for a few weeks. That’s very impressive. We know he’s a good player, I think for us is that it would be quite easy to put, try and put a target on his back and just be focused on him. But realistically, he’s the type of player that inspires the players around him as well. So we’ve just got to be as a collective better than them. If we can stick in that for 80 minutes, then it sort of takes his threat out of the game.”
Last weekend, Graham had a battle within the war against another recent member of the England exiles. David Ribbans returned to Franklin’s Gardens with Toulon, and did not hesitate in bringing the fight to his former club. The lock picked up from where he left off in the East Midlands, and marked the occassion with a try in front of a disapproving sea of green, black and gold. However, the former England second row stuck about after the match, and enjoyed a reunion with Graham and his old Saints teammates.
“I mean, it was actually a bit sad that he sort of got booed, I don’t really like that, he is a bloke that’s given a lot for this club. He still loves his club. Yeah, it’s good to see he’s looking very well. Unfortunately, he eye-balled me a couple of times in that second half and ran at me, and he’s a bit of a bag of spanners to try and tackle. But yeah, it is good to play against someone that has probably set the bar physicality wise in the Premiership, for the last few years. It was a really good test to get to go against him. It does make you feel good that we came out on the right side of it.”
Northampton Saints Director of Rugby Phil Dowson added; “No, didn’t catch up with Dave, I didn’t see him before or after, but I know the players did. I think he stayed in town on Friday night, and so they went to breakfast with him. They had to catch up with him just to see how he’s getting on.”
Despite having to walk under the posts when Ribbans crossed over to score, Graham and Dowson were both delighted to see Tommy Lockett pop up out wide for the late match winning try against Toulon. The 21-year-old showed great poise to stay in touch, and charge over the line to score a try, which lifted the roof off Cinch Stadium in the match’s final moments. Speaking on the former Bedford Blues lock’s efforts, Dowson said:
“Yeah, it was good. Actually, I think the most impressive thing looking back at it now was, you know, often when you get that close to the line, people pick and go, he actually moved himself away from the breakdown to create space. And ‘Mitch’ (Alex Mitchell) is world class at looking and finding that space.
So I thought for somebody, particularly in that position, you wouldn’t necessarily put that with a second row but to go and just give himself a little bit of space away from the breakdown to make that score easier, said a lot about how he’s been coached by Sam Vesty.”
Sam Graham also shared his thoughts on the headline grabbing score, on what was amongst one of the best nights he’s experienced in a Northampton Saints jersey.
“I think it’s really pleasing because we’ve spoken a lot as a group about coming out on the right side of big moments. And I think we’ve done that several times this year, but none more so than the last two weeks. Particularly on Friday night at home, being here doing it in front of our own fans. It was a big call to go to the corner, but everyone’s got such belief in what we’re doing, because we’re coming out on the right side of these big moments. And we’re proving it and yeah, the energy around the group at the moment is unbelievable.”
“Funnily enough, the first word I would have would have said would be relief. But actually, it wasn’t because I never felt as if we were going to lose the game, such as the belief in what we’re doing here. Just so so happy for Tommy Lockett to go over the line there. He hasn’t had the most game time in the world, but when he’s come in, he’s always pulling his weight and showing just how good he is. And the crowd, it genuinely was one of the most special nights in my career so far. The noise was absolutely mental and then still having two minutes to go, and showing the heart to finish that off in style was class.”