This Saturday, Northampton Saints take on Bath with the Premiership Rugby title on the line. Twickenham Stadium is reportedly set for a sell-out attendance, as a sea of blue, black and white comes crashing into wave of green, black and gold supporters. The Saints are eyeing up their first Premiership title in a decade, and fullback George Furbank fondly remembers being in the crowd for the 2013/14 title triumph.
A 17-year-old Furbank jostled his way through the buzzing Twickenham crowds, to watch his boyhood club defeat Saracens to win their first ever Premiership trophy. The season finale went down to the wire a decade ago, with the Saints claiming the winning share of the purse after Alex Waller’s extra time try secured an unforgettable day for the East Midlanders.
Speaking in a Northampton Saints media session ahead of this weekend’s final, Furbank cast his mind back to 10 years ago, when he witnessed the Saints march on to the summit of English club rugby.
“I was there, I was with my sister went for the day. I think my dad wanted to go, but my sister was very desperate to go, so he had to give away his ticket to her. But yeah, we had we had a pretty good day out that day.”
“It is going to be pretty surreal, then playing there 10 years later.”
So, we now fast forward 10 years, and Furbank has steadily established himself as one of the first names on the Northampton Saints starting XV. The versatile back has slotted in at fly half when called upon, but is most prominent when reading the action from the fullback spot. Furbank expressed how this weekend presents a surreal opportunity, to go from watching the likes of Alex Waller and Courtney Lawes lift the Premiership title, to playing alongside them in the showpiece event.
“It’s pretty cool, having watched him go and lift the premiership trophy to then be playing in the Premiership final with him. It’s probably not something I’m going to think about this week, but I think looking back I’ll think very fondly and feel very grateful that I’ve been able to do that with the legend of the game. Like I said, we want to go win that fit for him and the other boys leaving as well.”
Lawes has been at the forefront of the Northampton Saints discussions this week, as the 34-year-old gets set for his swan-song with the club. Having been apart of the Franklin’s Gardens family since his 2007 debut against Esher, Lawes looks set to see out his career in France with a move to Brive for the 2024/25 French Pro D2 season.
The likes of Tommy Freeman, Alex Mitchell and Director of Rugby Phil Dowson have all shared their Courtney Lawes stories this week, with Furbank being no exception. The fullback recalled his favourite memory of the legendary lock, which saw him lay out an opponent with a customary Lawes dominant tackle, and how the departing Saints stars have added extra motivation to the players throughout the recent training weeks.
“I think, probably his tackle on in the Tonga game on (Telusa) Veainu. I think that sums him up as a player. I think we were winning the game pretty comfortably at that point. I think that sort of tackle, that sort of work, rate just optimises what he’s about. He’s a leader in actions as well as words. He’s, a pretty special player who just gets better and better.”
“So for the last couple of months, it’s been a bit of our motivation. We bring it up in meetings probably once a week. And it’s just an extra driving factor. It definitely will be for those guys who are leaving. And there’s a big group leaving with some big players, and also part of the core group as well who were leaving at the end of the season. So we want to send them away with with some silverware, and I’m sure they’re desperate to do as well.”
With the likes of Lawes, Alex and Ethan Waller all departing cinch Stadium at the end of the season, there is a definite feel of the ‘end of an era’ for the green, black and gold faithful. However, Furbank has been leading the way for the new generation of Saints talents, that have been breaking into the set-up throughout the past few seasons.
The Saints boast an exciting set up of England eligible young guns, with the likes of Furbank, Freeman, Alex Coles, Fin Smith and Alex Mitchell already plying their trade for Steve Borthwick’s side. Their could well have additional internationally capped players following the upcoming Summer tour to Japan and New Zealand, after impressive seasons from Ollie wing Sleightholme and hooker Curtis Langdon.
“A lot of us a lot of us grew up playing rugby together, growing up through the academy and going through the system that way.” Furbank added. “And there’s still some older heads in there, but everyone’s pulling close together and it’s a really good environment to be a part of at the moment.”
Despite in no way settling for silver medals this season, the Saints have already gone one better than their 2022/23 Premiership campaign. Last year, Northampton were ousted by Saracens at the semi-final stage, with the North Londoners then progressing on to claim the title following the final win over Sale Sharks. Furbank recalled what his side learned from the defeat 12 months ago, and how they have been reaping the rewards of their progress.
“We just wanted to take a bit more onus on ourselves as players, whether that’s leading meetings, leading reviews from games, all that sort of that off the pitch. We want to take a bit more ownership.
“It’s very easy to sit in meetings and have the coaches lecture us week in week out for our season. But ultimately, if you don’t think for yourself, you come to big games and you can’t have the coach telling you what to do on the field. So we felt like we took a bit more of an onus on ourselves as a playing group, that will develop us as leaders on the pitch. That’s where I felt like we’ve taken a step forward this year.”
“If you start getting a run of games together and you realize that you put your game plan on the field and you feel like you could beat anyone. You start you start doing that against the big teams like Glasgow and Munster in the European games. Then at some other knockout games as well you start doing that and you really feel like ultimately, you’re not going to lose the game. I think we went for a patch of winning 12 on the bounce.
“And every time I stepped on the field, I felt like we were always going to be in control or we thought we weren’t going to lose the game. I believe that ‘A’ comes from winning and putting that streak together in that the first place. But also it comes from training. Like we work incredibly hard on our game both in attack and ‘D’ (defence) in training.
“I think we’ve had a lot more belief this year in our defence as well. Radders (Lee Radford) has come in and has done a hell of a job there and created a real buzz and energy around our ‘D’ which we probably didn’t have last year. We were lacking a bit and I felt like when our attack’s not working issue we’ve been able to rely on our D to keep us in games which would be massive for us.”
Whilst the old adage proclaims; ‘success breeds success’, Northampton have taken valuable learnings from a significant defeat from a few weeks ago. In a loss that curtailed their hopes of a remarkable Champions Cup and Premiership double, the Saints were defeated by Leinster in the semi-finals of the pinnacle European competition.
Furbank has painstakingly reviewed the defeat at Croke Park, which saw the visitors miss out by just 20-17 at full time. The slow start had a detrimental effect against the Irish province, and Furbank is eager for his side to learn from their mistakes for tomorrow’s Premiership Final against Bath.
“It’s the last dance, you win this game and you come away with a trophy. You don’t and you come runners up. So it’s definitely the biggest game of the season for us. Obviously playing Leinster away in that European semi final was was massive. But we have put ourselves in a position to go win a trophy. So this is definitely the biggest game that we’ve got.”
“I think it’s just about being being calm and composed, whilst being able to be as physical as you like. We probably weren’t as calm and clear thinking as we wanted to be in those first 20 minutes. That didn’t allow us then put a game on the field. They ultimately took a pretty handy lead when we had to chase it back. And we did that pretty well.
“But I think you start big games like that and you’re always sort of on the back-foot and chasing things again. So we spoke about being calm in our minds and our bodies firing.”