Northampton Saints Start Premiership Defence as Favourites

Northampton Saints begin the defence of their Gallagher Premiership title as the team every rival has to catch, after beating Exeter Chiefs in June's final for their second championship in three seasons. Nine other clubs start the new campaign looking to knock them off top spot, with relegation now scrapped from the competition and a World Cup on the horizon.

Bath return after a semi-final exit both at home and in Europe. Saracens open their first season since Mark McCall's departure chasing a top-four finish. Newcastle Red Bulls face the campaign after a summer of heavy turnover in personnel.

Seven of the league's 10 directors of rugby named Saints, founded in 1880 and based at the 15,249-capacity Franklin's Gardens, as favourites to retain the title. Most of the group that won it stays together. Alex Mitchell, Fin Smith and Tommy Freeman are all tied down on long-term deals, and Henry Pollock could follow — the flanker said this month he was weighing his options with his contract due to expire this season. Club captain George Furbank leaves the group on a high, but the rest of the homegrown core remains, working under Phil Dowson and Sam Vesty, rated the division's strongest coaching pairing.

The last title defence did not go the same way. In 2024-25 Saints reached the Champions Cup final but finished eighth in the Premiership. Dowson has pointed to a more settled squad this time round, with fewer senior leaders lost than in that campaign. Defence coach Lee Radford has since moved to a full-time role with Scotland, with Jim Henry promoted from within to replace him.

Exeter Chiefs, beaten finalists in June and playing out of the 15,600-seat Sandy Park, have made the sharper start to the season proper: fourth in the Premiership Rugby Cup with 4 points from a single match, against Saints' 1 point from two games in the same competition.

None of that settles much this early. But with Pollock's Saints future still open and the squad Dowson has built largely intact, how the club handles being hunted again, rather than doing the hunting, looks set to shape the destination of the title.