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.”
