Saints looking to improve away form in new season

Tom Pearson scored six tries in 22 appearances for Northampton Saints last season

Improving results away from home will be a key target for Northampton Saints this season, according to back row Tom Pearson.

They reached the European Champions Cup final last term before losing to Bordeaux, a game Pearson missed because of a knee injury.

But after winning the league title in 2024, Saints only finished eighth last season, 14 points adrift of the top four, with eight wins from their 18 games - and only one of them on the road.

"The league form was not where we wanted it to be - our home form was good, and that's something we're going to keep and build on," Pearson told BBC Radio Northampton.

"But our away form - there were a few games where if we'd been a little bit sharper, a bit more clinical, we could have been on the right side of the results.

"If we can put that right, better our away form a little bit, there's a lot of tough away days and just to get something out of them is so important. So that's definitely been a focus for our pre-season."

It is an issue also highlighted by back James Ramm following last Friday's 49-34 win at Saracens in the Prem Rugby Cup.

"We've relied heavily on our home form the past couple of years, and we love playing at home and can't wait to get in front of the fans at Franklin's Gardens and get going again, but a takeaway from this is we want to fix our away form," he said.

"We've had a big focus on it this pre-season and we've had weeks away, travelled up to Glasgow, and made sure we're put out of our comfort zone a little bit to make sure when we have those long travel days, we get our process right."

Saints will be without their British and Irish Lions stars for Sunday's lunchtime Gallagher Prem opener against Exeter Chiefs, but Pearson said they have made some "great additions" to their pack options with the likes of JJ van Der Mescht, Callum Chick and Danilo Fischetti.

"From a forwards point of view, those guys have really filled some gaps, and we saw a taste of them on Friday night with a very convincing win over Saracens which was a great kickstart for us. The best is yet to come from those guys," Ramm said.

Pearson said he was now in a "really good spot" with regard to his fitness following a full pre-season and is hoping chances to prove his versatility will improve his chances of an England recall after winning one cap in 2023.

"I want to play as much as I can but maybe add a couple of other positions to my repertoire. If I can play [number] six a bit more that would be great, be a bit involved in the set-piece, that would give me and coaches more options," he said.

"Eight is always an option. I've covered it in the past but at the moment the focus would be more on seven, and six as well."

Exeter finished ninth last season and Saints director of rugby Phil Dowson said both teams will be looking to challenge the best in the league this season.

"They [Exeter] want to make sure they don't have another season like last year and that's exactly where we are mentally," Dowson told BBC Radio Northampton.

"When they played here early in the season this time last year they were a real handful - we played really well that day to get over the top of them - and I was then surprised to see they didn't get as many results as I presumed they would."

Dowson also stressed that Northampton cannot rely on their home form alone to carry them through the new campaign.

"The pitch here, beautiful as it is, isn't magic, and the fans, as much as they want us to win, can't help us make the tackles and carry the ball, so we've got to make sure our behaviours and our actions are appropriate to playing at the Gardens," he added.