Which cheese shares its name with a Guiness Premiership rugby team that play at Welford Road?
TagMe TagMe Search
English_Premiership_(rugby_union).txt Welford_Road_Stadium.txt Northampton_Saints.txt
English Premiership (rugby union) Welford Road Stadium Northampton Saints
The English Premiership (also known as the Aviva Premiership due to sponsorship reasons)  is an English professional rugby union competition. The Premiership consists of twelve clubs, and  is the top division of the English rugby union system. Premiership clubs qualify for Europe's two main club competitions, the European Rugby Champions Cup and the European Rugby Challenge Cup. The team finishing at the bottom of the Premiership each season is relegated to the second-division RFU Championship, and the winner of the Championship is promoted to the Premiership.

The competition has been played since 1987, and has evolved into the current Premiership system. The current champions are Saracens. The most recently promoted side is Bristol, who have returned to the top flight after defeating Doncaster in the 2015-16 RFU Championship Play-Off Final.

History

See also History of the English rugby union system

Beginnings: English domestic rugby union until 1972

The governing body of rugby union in England, the Rugby Football Union (RFU), long resisted leagues as it was believed that the introduction of leagues would increase 'dirty' play and put pressure on clubs to pay their players (thereby contravening the amateur ethos). Instead, clubs arranged their own friendlies and had traditional games. The only organised tournaments were the County Cups and County Championship — the former played by clubs and the latter by County representative teams. The Daily Telegraph and a few local newspapers — such as the Yorkshire Post — compiled 'pennants' based on teams' performances, but as the strength of fixture lists varied, it was at best an estimate of a team's performance throughout a season.

1972–1995: Leagues and cups

In 1972 the RFU sanctioned a national knock-out cup — the R.F.U. Club Competition, the predecessor to today's Anglo-Welsh Cup — followed first by regional merit tables and then, in the mid-1980s, by national merit tables. One of the casualties of the move to competitive leagues was the loss of traditional games as the new fixture lists did not allow enough time for them.

The league system has evolved since its start in 1987 when the Courage Leagues were formed — a league pyramid with roughly 1000 clubs playing in 108 leagues each with promotion and relegation.

In the first season, clubs were expected to arrange the fixtures on mutually convenient dates. The clubs involved were Bath, Bristol, Coventry, Gloucester, Harlequins, Leicester, Moseley, Nottingham, Orrell, Sale, Wasps and Waterloo. That first season was an unqualified success, with clubs in the upper echelons of the national leagues reporting increased crowds, interest from both local backers and national companies, and higher skill levels among players exposed to regular competition. The fears that leagues would lead to greater violence on the field proved largely unfounded.

By the next season, the RFU allocated fixed Saturdays to the league season, removing the clubs' responsibility for scheduling matches. There was no home and away structure to the leagues in those early seasons, as sides played one another only once.

Initially two teams, Bath and Leicester, proved to be head and shoulders above the rest in the Courage League, and between them dominated the top of the table.

In 1994 the league structure expanded to include a full rota of home and away matches for the first time. The 1994–95 season was the first to be shown live on Sky Sports, a relationship which continued until the 2013–14 season when BT Sport acquired the exclusive rights. 

1996: The dawn of professional rugby union

The league turned professional for the 1996–97 season when the first winners were London Wasps, joining Bath and Leicester as the only champions in the league's first decade. Clubs like Saracens, Newcastle and Northampton were able to attract wealthy benefactors, but the professional era also had its casualties, as clubs like West Hartlepool, Richmond and London Scottish were forced into administration when their backers pulled out. 

2000–2002: Premiership, Championship and playoffs

The start of the 2000–01 season brought with it a re-vamping of the season structure. In 2000–2001 an 8-team playoff (the Championship) was introduced. However, the team finishing top of the table at the end of the regular season was still considered English champions ("Premiership title").

Half-way through the 2001–02 season, with Leicester odds-on to win their fourth title in succession, it was controversially decided that the winners of the 8-team playoffs would be crowned English champions.  There was an outcry from fans and this proposal was dropped.

2003–2014: The ascendancy of the playoffs

From the beginning of the 2002–03 season, a new playoff format was introduced to replace the 8-team Championship. The format required the first placed team in the league to play the winner of a match between the second- and third-placed teams. Critically, the winner of this game (the Premiership Final) would be recognised as English champions. Although Gloucester won the league by a clear margin, they then faced a three-week wait until the final. Having lost their momentum the second-placed Wasps (who had defeated third-placed Northampton) beat them easily in the play-offs. The playoff structure was reformatted in the 2005–06 season in which the first placed team would play the fourth placed team in a semi-final (a Shaughnessy playoff).

Since the implementation of the playoff system, only four teams have won both the regular season and playoffs in the same year; Leicester in 2000–01 (the first year of the playoffs) and again in 2008–09 and 2009–10, Sale Sharks in 2005–06, Harlequins 2011–12 and Saracens in 2015-16. 

Of all the Premiership teams, Wasps have made a reputation for playing the competition format to perfection, peaking at the right time to be crowned English Champions in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2008. Wasps did not lead the league standings at the end of the season in any of these years. Indeed, the formerly London club have not finished top of the league since the playoffs began. Conversely Gloucester have garnered an unfortunate reputation for leading the table at the end of the regular season only to fall short of winning the Premiership title losing finals in 2003, 2007 and 2008. Gloucester's single victory in the playoffs, in 2002, occurred when the league leaders, in that season Leicester, were still considered English champions, Gloucester's Championship victory being considered secondary.

The 2011–12 season saw Harlequins add their name to the trophy on their first attempt, winning 30-23 against the nine times champions Leicester. With their first ever English Premiership title, they are only the sixth club to win the Premiership since its creation in 1997, the others being Newcastle Falcons, London Wasps, Leicester Tigers, Sale Sharks and Saracens.  Leicester's 10th championship would have to wait until 2012–13, defeating Northampton in the final.

The 2013–14 Aviva Premiership Season saw Northampton add their name to the trophy for the first time, becoming the 8th different team to do so. This was achieved by defeating Leicester Tigers in the Semi Final 21–20 and denying Leicester a 10th Consecutive Final.  In the final they defeated Saracens 20–24 with a try in the last minute of extra time to win the 2013–14 Aviva Premiership.  

2014–present: US initiatives

With the future of the Heineken Cup uncertain beyond 2013–14, due to a row between England's Premiership Rugby Limited and France's LNR on one side and the sport's governing bodies on the other, Premiership Rugby Limited has explored several moves toward expanding its brand into the United States. In May 2013, Premiership Rugby Limited and U.S.-based RugbyLaw entered into a plan by which the two organisations were to help back a proposed U.S. professional league that could have begun play as early as 2014.  The first phase of the plan was to involve two preseason exhibitions featuring an "American Barbarians" side that will combine international veterans and young American talent. The "Barbarians" were intended to play matches in August 2013 in the U.S. and London, but those plans fell through; the matches are currently indefinitely delayed.  In August 2013, Leicester Tigers chairman Peter Tom confirmed that Premiership Rugby Limited had discussed the possibility of bringing select Premiership matches to the US. 

The first match played in the USA was on 12 March 2016 when London Irish were defeated by Saracens at the Red Bull Arena in the New York Metropolitan Area. 

Clubs

Current clubs

* Note: Capacity listed for rugby union games may differ from official stadium capacity

Participation in Top Flight

A total of 28 clubs have been involved in the 30 top flight league seasons since its inception in the 1987–88 season. The most recent club to make its debut in the Premiership was London Welsh, which made their Premiership debut in 2012–13. 

Four clubs; Bath, Gloucester, Leicester and Wasps, have appeared in every season to date. Harlequins only missed the 2005–06 season, and six other clubs have appeared in at least 20 seasons. 

Coventry, Liverpool St Helens, Moseley, Nottingham, Rosslyn Park, Rugby and Waterloo only appeared during the amateur era, whereas Exeter, Leeds, London Welsh, Richmond, Rotherham and Worcester have only appeared during the professional era. 

Below, the 2016–17 clubs are listed in bold; omnipresent clubs are listed in bold italics. Years listed are the calendar years in which the seasons ended.

* Note: Leeds are now known as Yorkshire Carnegie, but were known as Leeds for all their time in the Premiership.

Structure

Regular Season

The Aviva Premiership Rugby season runs from September to May and comprises 22 rounds of matches, with each club playing each other home and away. The results of the matches contribute points to the league as follows: 
*4 points are awarded for a win
*2 points are awarded for a draw
*0 points are awarded for a loss, however
**1 losing (bonus) point is awarded to a team that loses a match by 7 points or fewer
*1 additional (bonus) point is awarded to a team scoring 4 tries or more in a match

Playoffs

Following the completion of the regular season, the top 4 teams enter the play-off, which is held throughout May. The top two teams receive home advantage, the league leaders hosting the 4th ranked team, and the 2nd place team hosting the 3rd place team. The winners of these semi-finals progress to the final, held at Twickenham Stadium, with the winner of the final being Premiership Champions.

Relegation

There is a system of promotion and relegation to and from the Aviva Premiership. The last placed club after the 22 regular season rounds of the Premiership is relegated into the RFU Championship, while the winner of the Championship play offs is promoted to the Premiership for the subsequent season. However, promotion and relegation is subject to a Minimum Standards Criteria. If the winner of the play offs does not meet these standards, then there is no relegation/promotion, as would have been the case in the 2011–12 season when London Welsh won promotion from the Championship but were denied promotion, reprieving Newcastle Falcons from relegation, until London Welsh successfully appealed against their block. 

European competition qualification

The top six teams qualify for the next season's European Rugby Champions Cup whilst the team in seventh place advances to a playoff for another place. Teams that do not qualify for the Champions Cup play in the European Rugby Challenge Cup.

Players

Bold italics denote active player in the 2016–17 Premiership.

All records relate to 1997 onward when National League One was re-launched as the Premiership.

Appearances

 

Points

Tries

Champions

Between 1987–2002 the team at the top of the league was crowned English champions. From 2002–03 the winner of the league has been determined with a Premiership Final; which takes place at Twickenham.

Winners

Salary Cap

The English Premiership operates a salary cap,  set by the Premiership Rugby Board, specifying the money a club can spend on the player salaries of its squad per season. In the 2015–16 season, the base salary cap was £5.1 million, with an "academy credit" of up to £400,000 (£50,000 per player for up to eight players). 

The Premiership has announced the following cap levels in future seasons: 
*2016–17: Base cap of £6.5 million, maximum academy credits of £600,000
*2017–18: Base cap of £7 million, maximum academy credits of £800,000

A club may use the academy credit on a player that: (i) joined the club before his 18th birthday; (ii) is under age 24 at the start of the season; and (iii) earns a salary of more than £30,000.
This means that, for example, a qualifying player who earns £60,000 carries a cap charge of only £10,000.

Exclusions

Two players may be excluded from the cap calculations, an increase from one in prior seasons. 

The first "excluded player" slot can be filled by any player on a team's current roster who meets any of the following criteria:
*Played with his Premiership club for at least two full seasons before he was nominated as an excluded player.
*Played with his Premiership club for the full season before being nominated as an excluded player, after having played outside the Premiership.
*Played outside the Premiership in the season before he was nominated.

The second slot can only be filled by a player who had been outside the Premiership for at least one full season before signing his initial contract with his current Premiership club. "Initial contract" means the first contract signed for the 2015–16 season or later, meaning that a player who returned to a prior Premiership club after spending at least one full season outside the Premiership can qualify for the second slot.

Media coverage

In the United Kingdom, the rights are currently held by BT Sport under an £125m deal signed on 12 September 2012 to broadcast 69 live matches per season for three years from the 2013–14 season.  In Australia the Aviva Premiership is available on BeIN Sports Australia. Since the 2008/09 season there has been a highlights show on ITV4, repeated midweek on ITV. In the United States, the Aviva Premiership is available across NBC Sports since spring 2016.

Talksport and BBC Radio 5 Live, along with various BBC Local Radio stations broadcast commentary and magazine programming. Welford Road is a rugby union stadium in Leicester, England, and is the home ground for Leicester Tigers. It is located between Aylestone Road and Welford Road on the edge of the city centre. The stadium has a capacity of 26,000, making it the largest purpose-built club rugby union ground in England; the capacity is planned to eventually reach 30,000. It hosted five full England national team matches between 1902 and 1923, and staged a single match at each of the 1991 and 1999 Rugby World Cups.

History 

The Leicester Tigers moved there in 1892 and the first stands accommodated 1,100 spectators. The club house is located on Aylestone Road, where a small temporary stand is erected, with the other sides having permanent stands built on them.

The Crumbie Stand was built in the 1920s with the terrace being added later. The stand is named after the club's secretary who built the stand, Tom Crumbie. The members' stand – now replaced by the Caterpillar stand – was built on the side of the ground adjoining the former Granby Halls site; this stand was also built in the twenties. This expansion almost bankrupted the club but it helped attract top players and laid the foundations for Leicester first glory years in the 1920s and 1930s as well as their subsequent success. The stand is now sponsored by Holland and Barratt and is also commonly known by the same name. The stand allows for standing and seating capacity at the stadium.

The Alliance and Leicester Stand was opened at the Welford Road end in 1995. In 2010 this was renamed the Goldsmiths stand.

In 2004, the Tigers announced a plan to abandon Welford Road in favour of a groundshare at Walkers Stadium with the city's main football club, Leicester City F.C. However, the two clubs could not agree on which one would have priority at Walkers Stadium, and formally shelved the plan in 2005.

Leicester purchased the freehold to land adjacent to the ground in 2006. Plans have now been approved for the ground to be radically altered.  It will eventually see capacity expanded from 16,815 to 30,000. In 2008, phase I of the redevelopment started with the construction of the Caterpillar Stand on the north side that increased capacity to 24,000. The stand opened on 19 September 2009 with a capacity crowd watching a match between Leicester Tigers and Newcastle Falcons.  The stand has been renamed the MET-Rx Stand then to the Holland and Barrett Stand in July 2016.

An official opening ceremony took place on 6 November 2009 when Tigers played . 

In May 2015, Phase II of the Leicester Tigers Redevelopment was under way to knock down the clubhouse, dating back to 1909, and the temporary stand to build a new 3100 capacity stand with a VIP premium lounge and a clubhouse inside the stand. It is to be completed for the start of the Aviva Premiership but the offices and VIP premium lounge will not be available until December 2015.

Stadium

Holland and Barrett Stand

As part of Phase 1 of the Leicester Tigers Redevelopment Plan, the 90-year-old Members Stand, which was renamed the Next Stand in its latter years, was demolished before the end of 2008/2009 season. Therefore, the last couple of home matches were played at the Walkers Stadium. Officially opened on 19 September 2009 with a maximum capacity of 24,000 against Newcastle Falcons. With a total capacity of 10,000, it was originally called the Caterpillar Stand but was renamed in 2014 to the MET-Rx Stand then after Holland and Barrett became the main sponsors for 2016/17 season they received the naming rights to the North Stand.

West Stand (Crumbie Stand)

First built in 1918, the stand was named the Crumbie Stand after the club's secretary Thomas Crumbie. The terraces were erected later, taking the capacity to approximately 7,000. In 2010, the Crumbie Stand was renamed the Holland & Barrett Stand after health food chain Holland & Barrett had signed a sponsorship deal with Tigers the previous year. Stage 3 of the Leicester Tigers Redevelopment Plan would be likely to involve the demolition of the Holland & Barrett Stand, replacing it with a larger stand connected to the new Clubhouse Stand, with a likely capacity of 8,000. In July 2016, after the health and supplements company were declared main sponsors and naming rights to the North Stands, the Crumbie Stand is officially the West Stand on the Leicester Tigers Website but will probably be called the Crumbie Stand again.

Goldsmiths Stand

Originally the Alliance and Leicester Stand, the Goldsmiths Stand is an all-seater and 16 executive suites stand built in 1995 on the East Bank of the ground. With a capacity of roughly 6000 seats, it increased Welford Road's capacity to 16,815. In 2010, the Alliance and Leicester Stand was renamed to the Goldsmiths Stand after a change of sponsorship.

Caterpillar Stand
                                    
After a controversial decision in which the RFU announced that Welford Road wouldn't host any World Cup 2015 matches opting instead for the King Power Stadium, Tigers released plans for the second stage of redevelopment in which the 100 year old clubhouse and the temporary stand was demolished and a new stand built. It could hold 3,100 fans, 62 disabled fans and their assistants and increase the stadiums capacity to 26,000. Building for the new stand started the week after Leicester's final home match of the season against Northampton Saints where they beat Saints 22-14. Part of the Stand was open for game against Wasps on 1 November 2015. Before Christmas, Tigers announced that they signed a deal with Caterpillar for the new stand to be the new Caterpillar Stand permanently. And the stand was fully seated for the Northampton Saints Derby on 9 January 2016, a match which they won 30 - 27

Scoreboard

Since the end of the 2013-14 English Premiership (Rugby Union) season, there has been two Big TVs at the top of the Caterpillar Stand and just by right of the Goldsmiths Stand. The one by the Goldsmiths is sponsored by Stihl. During the construction of the Clubhouse Stand there was only one big screen, the Stihl one. The Big Screen is used for showing the match, scores, TMO replays, advertisements from sponsora and the players of each team.

International matches

As of 2008, the stadium has hosted seven full cap international games. It hosted pool matches during both the 1991  and 1999  Rugby World Cups and it was expected that it would also be a venue for the 2015 Rugby World Cup.  However Welford Road was omitted from the long list of potential venues submitted by England Rugby 2015 to the International Rugby Board in October 2012. The shortlist did include the King Power Stadium in Leicester as a potential venue for the tournament.  The stadium has also occasionally hosted England Saxons (previously England A and before that England B) and England U20 matches, and non-cap matches between international touring sides and Leicester or a Midlands or East Midlands XV.

Other use 

Since 2002 for men, and 2004 for women, the annual Varsity Match between De Montfort University and Leicester University has been held at Welford Road. 

In rugby league's Super League IX, London Broncos as the nominal home side took on Hull 20 June 2004, with Hull winning 42–26. 

Welford Road has also played host to American Football, with a charity match in aid of Matt Hampson taking place on 28 May 2007 between the Loughborough University Aces and reunited 90s team Leicester Panthers. 
National League team Leicester Falcons also played a league match at the stadium as part of a fundraiser for local charity LOROS, beating the Birmingham Bulls 22–15 on 12 June 2010. 

On 15 July 2010, Welford Road held its first pop concert with James Morrison playing followed on the 16th by Will Young. 

Records

The record for the highest attendance at Welford Road was set on 4 October 1924, when 35,000 people saw Leicester play the touring New Zealand team. The highest attendance for a league fixture, and the highest post-war attendance, was 25,849 for the derby match against Northampton Saints on 9 January 2016, following the opening of the new Caterpillar Stand. Northampton Saints are a professional rugby union club from Northampton, England. They were formed in 1880, and play in black, green, and gold colours. The team play their home games at Franklin's Gardens, which has a capacity of 15,500. Their biggest rivals are Leicester Tigers. "The East Midlands Derby" is one of the fiercest rivalries in English Rugby Union.

The club has won the English Premiership, the RFU Championship three times, the Anglo-Welsh Cup, the EDF Energy Trophy, the European Rugby Champions Cup, and are twice winners of the European Rugby Challenge Cup.

History 

Early years 

The club was established in 1880 under the original title of Northampton St. James (Saints) by Rev Samuel Wathen Wigg, a local clergyman and curate of St. James Church who was a resident of the nearby village of Milton Malsor in the house known as "Mortimers".  This is how the club got its two nicknames of The Saints or Jimmies. His original concept was to promote "order" to his younger parish members by creating a youth rugby club, with the philosophy of a "hooligan sport designed to turn them into gentlemen".

It was not long before Northampton had one of the major rugby union teams in the country. Twenty years after its establishment, the first Saints player, local farmer Harry Weston, was awarded an England cap.

As the club progressed through the early years of the 20th century one player dominated this era for the club, Edgar Mobbs. Edgar was a hero throughout the town. He was the first Northampton player to captain his country but is best remembered for his exploits in World War I. After initially being turned down as too old, Edgar raised his own "Sportsman's" battalion otherwise known as Mobbs Own. Edgar was killed in battle, leading his battalion over the top by kicking a rugby ball into no man's land on 29 July 1917 attacking a machine gun post and his body was never found. The club arranged the Mobbs Memorial Match as a tribute. It had been played every year since 1921 and the fixture took place between the Barbarians and East Midlands at Franklin's Gardens until the Barbarians withdrew their support in 2008.  The match was saved by the efforts of former Northampton player Bob Taylor and former Northampton chairman Keith Barwell, and since 2012 it has been played alternately at Bedford Blues' Goldington Road ground and Franklin's Gardens, with the host club facing the British Army team. 

In this postwar period the Saints continued to grow, and they started to produce some of the best players in England, some of whom went on to captain their country. They were one of the driving forces in the English game for the next 60 years producing players such as Butterfield, Jeeps, Longland, White and Jacobs but hard times were ahead.

The club failed to keep pace with movements within the game and top players were no longer attracted to the Gardens, where a 'them and us' mentality had built up between the players and those in charge of the club. Some former players formed their own task force which swept out the old brigade in the 1988 'Saints Revolution' and put a plan into action which would put the club back at the top of the English game.

Barry Corless, as director of rugby, set about restructuring the club and soon the Saints were back on the way up, helped by the signing of All Blacks legend Wayne "Buck" Shelford.

In 1990, Northampton Rugby Union Football Club gained promotion to the then First Division and the following year made their first trip to Twickenham to play Quins in the Pilkington Cup Final. They lost in extra time but the foundations of a good Saints line-up were beginning to show in the following few seasons.

Tim Rodber and Ian Hunter forced their way into the England setup while younger players such as Paul Grayson, Matt Dawson and Nick Beal came through the ranks and would follow the duo into the England senior team.

In 1994, Ian McGeechan took over as Director of Rugby, and although the club were relegated in his first season, they returned in style the next season, winning every single game of their campaign and averaging 50 points a game. This season is referred to by many fans of the club as the "Demolition Tour of Division Two".

Professional era 

In 1995, rugby union turned professional and the club was taken over by local businessman Keith Barwell.

In 1999, Saints came runners-up in the Allied Dunbar Premiership, their league campaign climaxing with a crucial home local derby with eventual winners Leicester Tigers which they lost 15–22.   Ian McGeechan had left the club at the end of the previous season to return to coach Scotland, and was replaced by former Saints player John Steele who had done well on a limited budget at London Scottish.  Steele relied on the foundations laid by McGeechan, as well as the inspirational captaincy of Samoan Pat Lam to lead the club to European success the following season.

In 1999–2000, the club became a Public Limited Company (Plc) and shares were issued to the public; in this season the Saints lost in the Tetley's Bitter Cup Final to Wasps, but beat Munster 9–8 in the European Cup Final to win their first major trophy.

After a poor start to the 2001/2002 season,  former All-Black coach Wayne Smith was appointed as head coach. He went on to transform the club in five short months. A team who looked down and out in November were moulded into a side that reached the Powergen Cup final and again qualified for the Heineken Cup. Travis Perkins became the club's main sponsor in 2001. 

In recent times the club narrowly survived relegation from the Premiership, after the then coach (Alan Solomons) was sacked in the middle of the 2004–5 season.  The coaching role was passed onto the former first team mates Budge Pountney and Paul Grayson to tide the team over. They had a slow start in the 2005–6 season, but continued to stay mainly unbeaten after the New Year. Budge retired at the start of the 2006–7 season leaving Grayson in overall control.

The Saints would again compete in the 2006–07 Heineken Cup. They finished second in their pool, behind Biarritz Olympique, the runners-up from the previous season. Northampton qualified for the quarter-finals and actually met Biarritz in Spain. Despite being in last place of the English league at the time, they defeated the French champions 7–6 to advance to the semi-finals.

Relegation (2007–08) 

On 28 April 2007, despite a 27–22 victory over London Irish at Franklin's Gardens, Northampton were relegated from the English Premiership. A "behind the scenes restructure" led to the brief appointment of Peter Sloane as head coach, from the role of forwards coach. Paul Grayson became the skills and backs coach. England Saxons coach Jim Mallinder became the new head coach and Director of Rugby, with his assistant Dorian West also following as assistant coach. Peter Sloane has since left the club.

On 22 March 2008, Northampton beat Exeter Chiefs to ensure their promotion and a return to the Guinness Premiership. On 12 April 2008, Northampton beat Exeter Chiefs 24–13 at Twickenham Stadium to win the EDF Energy Trophy. On 26 April 2008 they ended their National Division One season undefeated with 30 wins from 30 games.

Return to Premiership (2008–present) 

In the 2008–09 season, the Saints finished eighth on the table and only losing one game at home to Newcastle Falcons. They also lifted the European Challenge Cup, defeating French side Bourgoin 15–3 in the final on 22 May 2009 at The Stoop in London.  The victory gave them a place in the 2009–10 Heineken Cup.

In March 2010, the Saints won the Anglo-Welsh Cup final against Gloucester 30–24, gaining them their fourth piece of silverware in three years, and a place in the following season's Heineken Cup.  They also finished second in the English Premiership, losing to Saracens 19–21 in the semi-final played at Franklin's Gardens, and progressed as far as the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup losing to Munster at Thomond Park, Limerick.

Northampton finished fourth in the 2010-11 English Premiership, losing to Leicester in the semi-final. Saints also went undefeated into the final of the Heineken Cup, where they were beaten by Leinster 33–22, at the Millennium Stadium.

At the beginning of the 2011–12 season, with nine players out for the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, Saints were knocked out of the 2011–12 Heineken Cup in Stadium MK by Munster. When the international players returned, Saints began to move up the table. England picked eight Saints players out of a squad of 32 to represent England, meaning that over a quarter of the England team were Saints – a new club record for the number of players selected for a single England squad. In 2011-12, the Saints reached a third successive Premiership semi-final and a second Anglo-Welsh Cup final in three seasons.

After winning their first five matches of 2012-13, the Saints were pulled back into the pack in the Premiership and exited both the Anglo-Welsh and Heineken Cups, despite ending Ulster's four-year unbeaten home European record just before Christmas 2012. The team finished fourth in the league, and after beating Saracens in the semi-final reached their first ever Premiership final, where they lost 37-17 to Leicester.  
The 2013 season finished with seven players being taken to Argentina as part of the England squad, including Tom Wood as captain.

Northampton finished the 2013–14 season second in the league with 78 points. The reached the final of the 2013–14 European Challenge Cup, which they won by beating Bath 16-30.  Saints then beat Saracens 20-24 in the final to win the 2013–14 English Premiership.  

Stadium 

Franklin's Gardens 

Northampton Saints have played at Franklin's Gardens since 1880, when the club was born. Franklin's Gardens is a purpose-built rugby stadium near the town centre. It is about 1,250 m from the railway station and about 2,000 m from the bus station. The stadium holds approximately 15,500 people. The stadium also has 40 corporate boxes. Each can hold from 8 to 24 people. The four stands are: Tetley's Stand; Burrda South Stand; Church's Stand; and the new Barwell Stand (which replaced the Sturtridge Pavilion). It is also a multi-functional conference centre as well as the only Aviva Premiership ground with its own cenotaph.

In 2009, the Saints' board announced they would be applying to increase capacity to 17,000 with the redevelopment of the North Stand. It was intended this would be funded by a £40 million investment by supermarket chain Asda, who would build a new store on the land currently used as training pitches. A political battle ensued with the local council, which later came to be seen as an attempt by the board to wrest public funding and public land for their commercial objectives.

The club has since secured funding through alternate means – a loan thought to be in the region of £5million through Northampton Borough Council – and with planning permission rubber-stamped, building will commence in the summer of 2015. The stand, which will take the name of the Barwell family, is due to be completed in time for the start of the 2015/16 season and will take the capacity at Franklin's Gardens up to 15,500.

Northampton Saints had an unbeaten home record that stretched from March 2007 to March 2009, much of this record was set during the Saints' 2007/08 promotion from the RFU Championship (previously National Division One). During the 2008/09 English Premiership regular season the Saints only lost at Franklin's Gardens on one occasion, to the Newcastle Falcons.

The average attendance at the Gardens in the 2014–15 season is 13,428.

The club's Barwell Stand was finished in October 2015 and debuted against Saracens on 7 November 2015.

Heineken Cup matches 

The club played a 2011 Heineken Cup quarter final match against Ulster at Stadium:MK in Milton Keynes, because Franklin's Gardens is too small to meet the minimum 15,000 seats demanded by the European Rugby Cup tournament organisers.  The Saints won the match, beating Ulster 23–13, before a crowd of over 21,000. 

Kits 

In 2008, after being promoted from the championship to the premiership, Saints changed from Kooga to Rhino. After two years with Rhino, and coming second in the table, Saints switched again to BURRDA, a Swiss sports apparel company. Northampton have signed a four-year deal with BURRDA which have brought back the old-fashioned ring but with a modern twist for the home shirt and the away shirt with its black and gold ring with a peppermint light green background. In the 2014/15 season BURRDA released a kit with vertical green, black and gold stripes of the same size. It was one of the most popular kit releases of Saints History. From the start of the 2016/17 season Macron will be Saints' kit supplier, signing a 10-year deal with the club.

Current kit

The kit is supplied by Burrda Sport. On the front of the shirt, Travis Perkins is at the centre while Elite Insurance Company appears on the top left while StubHub! appears on the left and right of the collar. Hankook appears on the left sleeve. On the back of the shirt, Kubota appears at the top while GRS appears on top of the squad number while The University of Northampton appears on the bottom. 

Rivalries

Saints' main rivals are Leicester Tigers, whom they face in the East Midlands derby. Over a number of recent years, the Saints have developed a rivalry with Saracens. 

Current squad

2016-17

Academy squad 

Coaching Staff 

First team
* Jim Mallinder – Director of Rugby
* Dorian West – Forwards Coach
* Alex King – Attack/Skills/Kicking Coach
* Alan Dickens – Assistant Coach

Academy
* Alan Dickens – Academy Manager
* Dusty Hare – Academy Recruitment and Development Manager
* Mark Hopley – Academy Coach
* Ross Stewart – Elite Player Development Group Manager

Notable former players 

Hall of Fame 

The history of Northampton Saints is one filled with illustrious names. To recognise and honour its best players, the club established its Hall of Fame in 2004. To date 12 players have been inducted:

Forwards
* Ron Jacobs- Prop
* David Powell- Prop
* Ray Longland- Prop
* Gary Pearce- Prop
* Garry Pagel- Prop (admitted 2012)
* Vince Cannon- Lock
* Don White- Flanker
* Tim Rodber- Back row

Backs
* Dickie Jeeps- Scrum-half
* Gordon Sturtridge- Fly-half
* Jeff Butterfield- Centre
* Edgar Mobbs- Winger

Captains 

* 1880–81 F Barker
* 1882 A Timms
* 1883 T Racer
* 1884 E Eyles
* 1885–86 C Stanley
* 1887 T Stanley
* 1888 E S Dunkley
* 1889 C Stanley
* 1890 A E Orton
* 1891 C Stanley
* 1892–93 A E Orton
* 1894–95 C H Davis
* 1896 K H Kingston
* 1897 C H Davis
* 1898 K H Kingston
* 1899 H B Kingston
* 1900–01 W H Kingston
* 1902 H T F Weston
* 1903–04 H E Kingston
* 1905 R West
* 1906 E C Palmer
* 1907 J H Miles
* 1908–13 E R Mobbs
* 1914 E C Cook
* 1920–22 A G Bull

* 1923 C P Tebbitt
* 1924 A G Bull
* 1925 R Vaughan
* 1926 A F Blakiston
* 1927 R Jones
* 1928 J B Merry
* 1929–30 W H Weston
* 1931 E Coley
* 1932 T Harris
* 1933–34 W H Weston
* 1935 A D Matthews
* 1936 R J Longland
* 1937 T Harris
* 1938 W H Weston
* 1939–41 G S Sturtridge
* 1943–46 A P Bell
* 1947 R Longland
* 1948 R W Hamp
* 1949 E R Knapp
* 1950–54 D R White
* 1955 M J Berridge
* 1956–57 D R White
* 1958 R E G Jeeps
* 1959–61 C R Jacobs
* 1962–63 P J Taylor
* 1964 A R Turnell

* 1965–66 C R Jacobs
* 1967 R B Taylor
* 1968–72 D L Powell
* 1973–74 M J Roper
* 1975–76 I D Wright
* 1977–78 J J Page
* 1978–79 P Johnson
* 1979–80 P Sweet
* 1981–82 P McGuckian
* 1983 V Cannon
* 1984 J A G D Raphael
* 1985–86 D R Woodrow
* 1987 G J Poole
* 1988 G Steele-Bodger
* 1989–91 G Pearce
* 1992–93 C J Olver
* 1994–99 T A K Rodber
* 1999–2001 P Lam
* 2001 A C Pountney
* 2002–04 A C Pountney and J Leslie
* 2004 C Krige until November then S G Thompson
* 2005 S G Thompson and T B Reihana
* 2006–09 T B Reihana
* 2009- D M Hartley
* 2015-16 L Dickson
* 2016- T Wood

Club honours 

* Aviva Premiership
** Champions: (1) 2013–14
** Runners up: (1) 2012–13
* RFU Championship
** Champions: (3) 1989–90, 1995–96, 2007–08
* Anglo-Welsh Cup
** Winners: (1) 2009–10
** Runners up: (2) 2011–12, 2013–14
* EDF Energy Trophy
** Winners: (1) 2007–08
* Heineken Cup
** Winners: (1) 1999–2000
** Runners up: (1)  2010–11
* European Challenge Cup
** Winners: (2) 2008–09, 2013–14
* Guinness A League
** Winners: (1) 2008–09
* Middlesex 7s
** Winners: (1) 2002–03

Statistics 

Overall Stats 

* Most Points In A Match 96 (v Sedgley Park 2008)
* Most Tries In A Match 14 (v Sedgley Park 2008)
* Most Conversions In A Match 13 (v Sedgley Park 2008)
* Most Penalty Goals In A Match 7 (v Richmond 1997)
* Most Drop Goals In A Match 2 (v Newcastle Falcons 1996)

Seasons summary
County Borough of Leicester Leicester, Leicestershire Caerlyr Leicester Leicester UA Leicester, United Kingdom Leicester, England Leicester, UK Liecester UN/LOCODE:GBLCS Leicester. Leycester Caerlŷr Leicesterians City of Leicester
county borough of leicester caerlŷr city of leicester leicester leicestershire liecester un locode gblcs leycester leicester ua leicester united kingdom caerlyr leicester england leicester leicester uk leicesterians
leicester
WikipediaEntity
Leicester.
 which cheese shares its name with the genus peremurec rubbed teen up to play at walford road. 

 I cannot provide information or guidance on physical organisms of the genus rub teen is intended to play on various name and technically