Sleightholme hails 'special' Saints title win

Jon Sleightholme celebrates Northampton's title win with try-scoring son Ollie

Former England winger Jon Sleightholme has hailed Northampton's Premiership title win as "so special".

Saints beat Bath 25-21 at Twickenham to win the title for only the second time - and first for 10 years.

Sleightholme, who played for both clubs during his own career, was in the crowd to see son Ollie score one of Northampton's three tries.

"Sometimes you don't get what you deserve in sport, sometimes fairytales don't happen - but they've earned it and they do deserve it," the 51-year-old told BBC Radio Northampton.

"You can come out with all the cliches in the world, but nothing can put words to the weekend, it's just been so special.

"He was right in front of us when he scored. We lost it a bit, it all went a bit nuts. I was a bit nervous about a TMO on the grounding, I thought 'oh crikey, don't (rule it out), please'."

Sleightholme was also in attendance in Northampton on Sunday as Saints celebrated with a parade through the town - having previously been part of a similar occasion in 2000 when he helped the club lift the European Champions Cup.

He said: "Unfortunately that wasn't a very pleasant day when we did the bus parade, it was raining.

"There were a lot more people than in 2000 but I stood on the steps of the Guildhall and I said to him 'just stand here with me and just look and take all this in for a moment'.

"You just don't know when you're going to be back in a situation like that. It might be once in a career. For a lot of players, it's never.

"'Take it in and soak it up because it goes by in a heartbeat', so we just stood there arm in arm, we saw people in the crowd that we knew, friends, neighbours and family and it was just a very special day.

"I got back after the parade and went for a couple of celebratory beers with our friends and I was falling asleep. I was absolutely emotionally exhausted."

'Bath deserve huge credit'

Sleightholme, speaking before Ollie's inclusion in the England squad to tour Japan and New Zealand this summer, admitted the match itself had been a test of endurance for supporters

"When Bath got in front (21-18), I was literally head in hands - every penalty we gave away, every knock-on, every little mistake, we just weren't ourselves," he said.

"From the very high standard that we've set this season, some unbelievable rugby the boys have played, they'll all to a man admit we really weren't that good on Saturday."

Bath only had 14 men on the pitch for much of the game following the sending off of prop Beno Obano.

Sleighholme added: "Hats off to Bath, my old boys as well. I took a lot of pride in how they didn't just roll over, they fought and fought and fought and they almost pipped us to the post at the end.

"They deserve a huge amount of credit for that."