Dual mission for new Northampton chair Bevan

Northampton Saints are one of the biggest names in English rugby, but very much pride themselves on a "band of brothers", family club ethos.

And that is certainly true in the boardroom where Ella Bevan is the new chair, following in the footsteps of her father and late brother Keith and Leon Barwell.

Her task is twofold, to help the club towards financial sustainability and build on the team's successes of the past couple of years - winning the Premiership title in 2024 and reaching the European Champions Cup final last season.

To achieve the latter, it is vital that Saints hang on to the leading lights in a squad packed with internationals, but Bevan is optimistic that the "world-class" coaching available will help ensure no exodus of star names.

"With the nature of professional rugby now, contracts are two, maximum three, years so it's a yearly thing that someone's out of contract," she told BBC Look East.

"We've obviously got a lot of big names coming out of contract this year but I am confident. It's not just about the financial remuneration that we can offer them, although I think we're in a good position with that.

"We've got a coaching team they want to be part of, people want to come to the club, not just because of what they can bring to us, but because of what we can give them and we can show that we can develop players from the academy into England and British & Irish Lions players."

Alex Mitchell, George Furbank, Fraser Dingwall and Fin Smith are four of the players whose current deals expire at the end of a 2025-26 season which begins at home to Exeter Chiefs on Sunday.

However, Bevan said of the current squad: "They are team-mates in every sense of the word, they love playing together and being together.

"You can see that enjoyment, see that fulfilment in every sense, you see the joy when they win and the heartbreak when they lose. And that is something money can't buy. We're really happy that we've got that here."

'Dad was the ultimate delegator'

Ella Bevan's father Keith Barwell (left) was chair when Saints won the Premiership title in 2014

Bevan has been following the club since she was a teenager and joined the board at Franklin's Gardens in 2012.

"It's a huge part of my life, it's part of my DNA," she said.

Her father Keith once described himself as a "rough diamond" and his son Leon, who followed him as chair before dying of cancer in 2013, as a "master negotiator".

Bevan believes she brings "emotional intelligence" to the role, working alongside chief executive Julia Chapman, and making Northampton the only Prem Rugby club with both senior management/administrative jobs filled by females.

"I take a lot of my leadership style more from dad, from watching what he did. He was all about empowering people that worked with him and the art of delegation - I would say dad was the ultimate delegator - and giving people who you work with ownership. I feel we've got a staff here that are exceptional," she said.

"They all have complete buy-in to the club, they all feel ownership and part of the success and that is something I want to carry on. I am just a very small cog in this machine and we need the team on and off the field to make this place successful."

Saints 'need further investment'

Significant financial challenges remain, however, and Northampton made a £1.7m loss in the season when they won the title by beating Bath at Twickenham.

"We are always increasing our turnover year on year and we are cutting our losses but, in order to make the club sustainable, we need further investment into the club," said Bevan

"We need to improve our commercial income, so that would be accessing partners, looking at different areas of revenue growth on and off the pitch, how we can commercialise the stadium outside of matchdays.

"All of those things, as well as looking at our spend, is really important. We know we've got to have a sustainable and responsible model in order to get the club where we want it to be and hopefully that's not too far away."

Earlier this year, Chapman expressed her view that the salary cap in English rugby's top flight would have to come down again for the game to become profitable.

However, such a move could have a knock-on effect in terms of player retention at a time when there is also talk of a breakaway R360 league.

"We want to pay the players what they're worth, and we know we've got a world-class playing group here, but we need to operate within our business model and in order to do that we need help from the league," said Bevan

"At the moment we are discussing a salary cap formula - what that looks like and how we implement that is going to be key going forwards."

Despite last season's run to the European final, Saints only managed eighth place in the Premiership, but Bevan believes that was not a true reflection of their quality.

"I don't think that was anything to do with our ability to perform. There were a few conflicts with England, we've got increasing numbers of internationals, but predominantly (it was because) we had some really big long-term injuries at the beginning of the season which affected our performance within the Premiership.

"I absolutely believe we can compete on both fronts this season - I'm excited."