Harry Mallinder among a quartet to extend their Northampton deals
Northampton’s Harry Mallinder, Tom Collins, Paul Hill and Ahsee Tuala have all signed new deals to remain at Franklin’s Gardens.
The quartet boast just under 400 appearances and 25 seasons at the club between them, and director of rugby Chris Boyd is delighted to have secured their services for the foreseeable future.
“We’re absolutely delighted to sign these boys on,” he said. “They’re four Saintsmen who’ve been here for a long time and are all an important part of the fabric of our organisation.
“They’ve all played a good chunk for us, but a few of them are still young too and they’re all important cogs in our machine.
“We’re not completely finished in terms of our recruitment and retention, but we’re getting very close to getting the balance we want.”
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HARRY MALLINDER – #1950, Fullback, 74 Saints appearances
A former ballboy at Franklin’s Gardens and Saints academy product, he made his club debut in 2014 but really broke through between 2016 and 2018 where he became a fixture in the first team and earned a call-up to Eddie Jones’ England squad.
The versatile 23-year-old – who also previously captained England U18s and U20s – is equally comfortable at centre and fly-half, and is now back in first-team contention after missing most of the 2018/19 season through a serious knee injury.
“The club was good to Harry over the last 18 months and he’s been good to the club too,” said Boyd. “He’s done a lot of work for the Saints Foundation so he’s deeply entrenched in the fabric of Northampton Saints. This is home for Harry and we’re really pleased he’s staying on.”
?? We’re delighted to today confirm new contracts for four first team regulars at the Gardens.@a_tuala23, @paulhill101, @HarryMal10 & @ThomasCollins13 boast almost 400 Club caps combined.
— Northampton Saints ? (@SaintsRugby) February 26, 2020
TOM COLLINS – #1927, Wing, 92 Saints appearances
The Northampton-born 25-year-old has been a fixture on the wing for Saints since Chris Boyd’s arrival and is set to bring up a century of appearances this season.
The fleet-footed speedster has notched up 29 Saints tries, 16 of which have come in the last 18 months, and Collins was the club’s second-highest try-scorer last season.
After representing England at U19 and U20 level, initially broke into the Northampton team during the 2013/14 season and was named the LV= breakthrough player of the season for his standout performances the following campaign.
Boyd said: “He brings that little bit of X-factor. When you look at our highlights packages, you see how many times Tommy Collins is involved in those moments. When he’s hot, he’s very hot, and he’s a really valuable member of this team.”
PAUL HILL – #1959, Prop, 104 Saints appearances
Tighthead prop Hill arrived in Northampton from Yorkshire Carnegie back in 2015, immediately catching the eye of Eddie Jones and winning five caps for England in 2016.
Prior to his first Test cap, Hill had represented his country at U17s, U18s, U19s and U20s level – taking part in two Junior World Championship finals, including the 21-20 win over South Africa in 2014.
The 24-year-old enjoyed his most successful Saints season last term, making more starts than ever before and lifting the Premiership Rugby Cup before claiming his 100th club cap in December against Leinster in Dublin.
“I’m really pleased for him,” said Boyd. “He’s worked really hard to become an important part of our machine. He’s got a big future ahead of him and I’d like to see him stay at Saints for the next seven or eight years. If he does I can see him being both highly capped for the club and going on to play for England again.”
“If Bath’s acquisition of Redpath proves to be as successful as Saracens’ buy-out signing of Mako Vunipola, the chances of this sort of move happening more often in the future are only going to increase,” writes @alexshawsporthttps://t.co/KHIWKrgxJ8
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) February 25, 2020
AHSEE TUALA – #1956, Fullback, 113 Saints appearances
Tuala became a Saint back in 2015, joining the club initially as injury cover before impressing the Franklin’s Gardens faithful with a stint in the No15 jersey and making his deal permanent that summer.
The 30-year-old Samoa international scored the winning try in the 2017 European Champions Cup play-off final against Stade Francais, securing top-tier European rugby for the 2017/18 season in a fine finish to the campaign.
Tuala received the Saints’ Supporters breakthrough player of the year award for his performances that term and featured heavily the following two years with 55 appearances in all competitions and 14 tries.
Boyd added: “Ace brings a lot of colour to our environment. He is highly skilful, brings a good, calming influence on the team, and he’s a good man to have on and off the field.”
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Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
28 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
28 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
28 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
28 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
28 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments