Real champions keep winning - Northampton's Freeman

Tommy Freeman scored Northampton's first try in the Premiership final

Northampton and England wing Tommy Freeman hopes last season's Premiership title can be the start of an era of dominance for the club.

Saints beat Bath 25-21 at Twickenham in June to be crowned English champions for the first time in 10 years.

And they will start the new campaign with an away game against the same opponents on Friday, 20 September without a number of key players who have moved to new clubs or retired.

"It's all good doing it once, but real champions do it back to back and they keep winning," Freeman told BBC Radio Northampton.

"Saracens were a good example of winning Europe, winning multiple Premierships, we'll definitely be looking to do that.

"We did very well in Europe last year and hopefully we can push on to a final and give ourselves a chance there."

Northampton reached the semi-finals of the European Champions Cup last season before losing to Leinster.

It is 24 years since they were European champions and 10 since their last European success, when they won the 2014 Challenge Cup.

"Like we said last year, it's about (putting) our game on the pitch, regardless of who we're playing, if we stick to the strengths we know we've got, we're obviously quite tough to play against and a tough team to beat," said Freeman.

Following Lewis Ludlam's departure, full-back George Furbank has been confirmed as Northampton's new club captain, having led the team to 12 wins from 12 matches so far.

"There were a few boys in contention to be captain this season but when Dows [director of rugby Phil Dowson] told me, I was buzzing and so excited to tell my family as I knew how proud they were going to be," Furbank said.

"Last season, I had Courtney [Lawes], Luds and Sue [Alex Waller], who was club captain when I first broke into the first team, to lean on. They were all incredible leaders in their own way and I learned a lot from them.

"But I’m lucky that I can depend on plenty of guys in this squad too - the likes of Fin Smith, Alex Coles, Fraser Dingwall, Sam Graham and so on – we’ve got a lot of leaders now in this group."

How Saints cope with the loss of England back rows Lawes and Ludlam, plus Sam Matavesi, Alex Moon and brothers Alex and Ethan Waller, may determine how successful the new season will be.

"Some big characters having left, it does feel a bit odd. I found out I'm the sixth most capped (player) and I'm 23," added Freeman.

"It is a young squad but it's a hungry group that just want to keep going forward."