Chapman ready to help Saints remain on an upward curve

The coaching development put in place by Chris Boyd after his arrival in 2018 eventually bore fruit as the Kiwi departed and one of his protégés, Phil Dowson, went on to deliver a long-awaited Gallagher Premiership title last season.

Saints had a plan, and stuck to it.

And they will hope that ethos continues to work for them when it comes to their next CEO.

Julia Chapman has been chosen to succeed Mark Darbon, whose Saints story has been one of real success.

Under his stewardship, the club has navigated some huge challenges, most notably the Covid-19 crisis.

Chapman, too, played a key role in the Saints stability that has allowed the club to thrive while others have failed to survive.

She originally arrived at Saints as finance director in 2016 and rose to the position of chief operating officer before it was announced that she would take over the CEO role from the departing Darbon this November.

It means the black, green and gold will continue with their current philosophies, while Chapman also has clear ideas of her own and will use her past knowledge of Saints to help shape the present and future.

"The first thing I would say is we absolutely want to kick on from here so there's not going to be any resting on our laurels and thinking we've reached the top of anything," Chapman said.

"We very much see this as a continuation of a journey to sustained success.

"The challenges will be around how do we sustain this and keep it going, how we can get better.

"We think we have got a really sound long-term strategy and so we're not looking to say 'let's rip it up and start again' but, at the same time, I will be bringing my own fresh thinking and fresh ideas and things I'm keen to pursue.

"There is a balance.

"Are we saying all I need to do is keep my hand on the tiller and keep chugging in the same direction? That makes it sound very staid.

"What we're saying is we think we've got the right strategy, we're not u-turning, but there's still actually a significant challenge because sustaining success is a big challenge in itself.

"I'm under no illusions this is still a hard job with big challenges ahead of us."

Despite the size of the task, Chapman couldn't be happier to have been handed the extra responsibilities that come with the job of CEO.

"I am absolutely delighted!" she said.

"I feel very privileged to be in this position and I'm just really excited to get going.

"In all honesty, I wasn't a massive rugby fan before I joined the club.

"My husband is a huge rugby fan so that's where the connection was.

"I was working for Travis Perkins locally so when they were looking for a finance director, I guess I came across the radar of the search company they were using.

"The role just really appealed to me and, once you're here, it just gets under your skin."

Darbon, who will become the CEO of The R&A (The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews) later this year, has helped to lift Saints from the doldrums since his arrival as the club has gone from one on the slide, in terms of league position, to one on the up.

Chapman has learned a lot from observing his work and she knows the recipe for his success.

"Undoubtedly, Mark's done a brilliant job," she said.

"Some of the challenges he came into seven, eight years ago were different to the ones we're facing now.

"What he does really well is he's really open and transparent with our supporters and our partners and he would be the first to say he builds a strong team and has great people around him. He relies on them and trusts them to do their jobs.

"He's built a great team, provided a clear strategic direction and then given people the space to do their jobs."

So having worked with Darbon for so long, Chapman has a good template on which to build.

"There's a lot of areas where Mark and I already work quite closely together," she said.

"I joined as FD but I've broadened my role to chief operating officer in the last three years or so.

"So in terms of the operational side, grounds, the finance side and also the commercial areas and some big projects we've done and have underway, I'm already involved in a lot.

"That sort of stuff gives me a bit of headstart.

"At the same time, there's things I don't get that closely involved in, for example the women's rugby and some of the commercial partnerships.

"It felt like quite a natural progression for me and there's stuff I'm excited to get my teeth into.

"There's enough growth and progression to make me excited about it but not too much that it's scary."

There have undoubtedly been some scary times in the past, with Chapman helping Saints to overcome some tricky times that other clubs could not come through.

"Obviously there have been three brilliant clubs (Wasps, Worcester Warriors and London Irish) go into administration and we've had the Covid pandemic which has created a lot of stress in the game and we're all carrying more debt than we were before," she said.

"But at the same time, Saints has always had a mindset of being self-sustaining, and that stood us in really good stead as we went into Covid because we haven't had a history where we've just been able to turn to someone and say 'can you top the bank account up?'.

"We've had to have that commercial mindset about how we grow revenue, how we control costs, how we stand on our own two feet so those disciplines stood us in really good stead when we went into those difficult times.

"If you look at what we did after Covid, we bounced back so quickly and the year after Covid we'd already exceeded the level of revenue we were achieving beforehand and we've continued to grow year on year since."

The enthusiasm for her new Saints role is extremely evident when talking to Chapman.

She speaks with passion and pure joy, especially when asked what she is most looking forward during the next chapter of her career.

Chapman said: "The things I'm really looking forward to are being a little bit less back-of-house so engaging with our supporters, getting a bit closer to what they love, what they think we do well, what they think we can do better and particularly how we can get more people growing to love the sport and coming to watch the sport because that's really key for us and the game more broadly."