Northampton

The club was established in 1880 under the original title of Northampton St. James 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". Wigg had played rugby football for around 18 months between 1878 and 1880, and the game had already been played on an informal basis in the town and the county for around 17 years. His original concept was to promote "order" amongst his younger parish members by creating an "improvement class" for troubled local boys.

The first "official" game is considered to have been played against a local team, the Star from Bailiff Street, just off Northampton Racecourse. The early days saw games against teams from Northampton such as All Saints, St Michael's, Scorpions, Northampton Rugby Club, the Wanderers, and, in contrast to Saints' working-class roots, the predominantly upper-class Northampton Unity Football Club, who later offered to merge with Saints (though this was refused by the St James' governing board).

It was not long before Northampton had one of the major rugby union teams in the country. By the 1896–97 season they had conceded only 93 points and kept their opposition scoreless for 17 of that season's 22 games. In 1900, twenty years after its establishment, local farmer Harry Weston was the first Saints player to be awarded an England cap. The club was also drawing crowds of around 10,000 for major games, especially those against Leicester.

A minor disagreement occurred in 1897 as Saints looked to drop the "St. James" part of their name to become "Northampton Football Club", because the recently formed association football club Northampton Town FC, known as the Cobblers, also wished to assume this name. In the end, after some negotiation from RFU chairman George Rowland Hill, the Cobblers were willing to cede the name to Saints.

Saints formed an early relationship with Northampton Cricket Club, after donating all ticket proceedings from their 1897 game against Portsmouth RFC to the cricket club. They followed this up with a similar gesture in 1899 after a game against Bedford.

In 1905, Saints managed to secure a match against the Original All Blacks, losing 32–0. After a post-match meeting on 1 May 1905, a third stripe was added to the shirt, in gold, to mark the occasion despite the heavy defeat.

In 1908, eight years after Harry Weston's first England cap, Edgar Mobbs made his debut. Edgar was a hero throughout Northampton and in Bedford after also representing Beford several times. A victim of the RFU's witch-hunting post Great Schism he was accused of "professionalism" in 1907 and tried by the RFU, alongside several other players, all of whom were acquitted. He was the first Northampton player to captain his country but is best remembered for his exploits in World War I. After being turned down as too old to join up, Edgar raised his own "Sportsman's" battalion otherwise known as Mobbs Own. He was killed on 29 July 1917 leading his battalion over the top while kicking a rugby ball into no man's land to attack a machine gun post. His body was never recovered. Thousands turned out to see his monument unveiled in Northampton's Market Square.

The club arranged the Mobbs Memorial Match in 1921 as a tribute. It was played every year 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. From 2024 the match has been played as a preseason game between Bedford and Northampton.

In this period the Saints continued to grow and produced some of the best players in England, several of whom went on to captain their country. They were one of the driving forces in the English game for the next 60 years but hard times were ahead.

The club failed to keep pace with developments in 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. A few former players formed their own task force, which swept out the "old brigade" in the 1988 'Saints Revolution' and put a plan into action that would put the club back at the top of the English game.

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

In 1990, Northampton Rugby Union Football Club gained promotion to the 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 began 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 match of their campaign and averaging 50 points a game. This season was referred to by fans of the club as the "Demolition Tour of Division Two".

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

In 1999, Saints became runners-up in the Allied Dunbar Premiership, their league campaign climaxing with a crucial home local derby against 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 while working for 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 that 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.

The club narrowly survived relegation from the Premiership after coach Alan Solomons was sacked in the middle of the 2004–05 season. The coaching role was passed onto the former first teammates Budge Pountney and Paul Grayson. They had a slow start to the 2005–06 season, but continued mainly unbeaten after the New Year. Pountney retired at the start of the 2006–07 season leaving Grayson in overall control.

The Saints competed for the 2006–07 Heineken Cup, finishing second in their pool behind Biarritz Olympique, the runners-up from the previous season. Northampton qualified for the quarter-finals and met Biarritz in Spain. Despite being at the bottom of the English league, they defeated the French champions 7–6 to advance to the semi-finals.

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 following as assistant coach.

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.

In the 2008–09 season, the Saints finished eighth, losing only 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. 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 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 away at the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, Saints were knocked out of the 2011–12 Heineken Cup by Muster at Stadium MK. 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, Saints 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.

In the 2013–14 season, the club finished second in the league behind Saracens with a total of 78 points, but went on to win the 2013–14 English Premiership, defeating table-topping Saracens 24–20 after 100 minutes of rugby due to extra time. They also reached the final of the 2013–14 European Challenge Cup, which they won by beating Bath 16–30 at Cardiff Arms Park in Wales.

Following what was arguably the most successful season in the club's history, the Saints finished atop of the Rugby Premiership with 76 points. However, they were undone in the 2014–15 Premiership Rugby semi-finals, losing 24–29 to Saracens on 23 May 2015.

A couple of disappointing seasons followed, with results leading to stagnation, and on 12 December 2017 director of rugby Jim Mallinder was released from the club after more than 10 years. On 29 December 2017, Australian coach Alan Gaffney joined the club on an interim basis until the end of the 2017–18 Premiership Rugby campaign, to work alongside Alan Dickens at the helm. The team finished 9th overall that year with a points tally of 43, but avoided relegation and confirmed their place in the 2018–19 Premiership Rugby season.

A new era was confirmed when it was announced on 29 January 2018 that Hurricanes boss Chris Boyd would link up with Saints for the 2018–19 Premiership Rugby campaign. The announcement was a coup for the club, due to the coach's high profile and success in Southern Hemisphere Rugby, which included the 2016 Super Rugby title with the Hurricanes. In Boyd's first season the Saints would go on to lift the Premiership Rugby Cup, defeating Saracens 23–9 in front of a home-final crowd on 17 March 2019. The Saints also secured a top 4 finish for the first time since 2015, and went on to face Exeter Chiefs in the Premiership Rugby semi-final play-offs.

After a hotly contested regular season, which saw Saints finish top of the table, only finishing ahead of Bath on points difference, they faced a renewed Saracens side in a home semi final. Saints won 22-20 after a strong performance. This match was the final home appearance of Courtney Lawes.

The final was set to take place on 8th June against a strong Bath squad. After a reasonably dominant first half, seeing the side 15-10 up, the game evened out at 18-18. Following a handful of penalties and tries, and a well managed defensive set by Northampton, the game finished 24-21 in favour of Saints.

This was their second league win, 10 years after their first in 2014. A parade was organised for the following day and thousands of supporters attended. Roads were shut and the route went from Franklin's Gardens to Northampton Guildhall.

Following a succcesful run in the pool stage in the 2024–25 European Rugby Champions Cup, Saints faced a pair of knockout matches against ASM Clermont Auvergne and Castres Olympique. After comfortably winning both, they faced an intimidating Leinster side away in Dublin, in a repeat of the previous year's semi-final, which saw Saints knocked out in a close game. Saints ultimately went on to win in a stunning 34-37 victory, which sends them to their third ever European final on the 25th May in Cardiff, against a renewed Union Bordeaux Bègles side.