Saints boss Dowson hails 'exceptional journey' of prop-turned-lock Prowse

And the director of rugby has outlined exactly why the black, green and gold took the decision to transform the tighthead prop into a lock.

After initially being released from the Saints Academy system in 2019, Prowse linked up with the Senior Academy in Northampton ahead of the 2020/21 season.

He impressed on loan at Kettering RFC and Loughborough University, as well as for the Wanderers, before being offered his first full-time contract.

He then went to Bedford Blues as part of Saints' strategic partnership, featuring in every Championship match in the shortened season that term.

He continued to feature regularly for the Blues in the 2021/22 campaign, with his performances there being rewarded by a senior debut for Saints against Saracens in the Premiership Rugby Cup in March 2022.

Up until the start of this season, Prowse had been playing as a tighthead prop.

But Dowson and his coaches took the decision to switch him to the second row, feeling his attributes were better suited to a role in the engine room.

Prowse has gone on to make 11 appearances for Saints this season, starting six times and coming off the bench on five occasions.

Such was his rise that he even made it on to the bench in the Investec Champions Cup final, coming on during the first half to replace the injured Temo Mayanavanua.

And Dowson has nothing but praise for the 24-year-old, who captained Saints for the first time on the final day of the Gallagher Premiership season, in a game at Gloucester.

"We were trying to develop Ed into a tighthead - he hadn't played tighthead a huge amount - and we saw so much upside in how he defended," Dowson explained.

"There were games we watched him play for Bedford last year, at a decent level in the Championship, where he was banging.

"In goal-line defence, you find out about people, and we were watching the clips of Ed Prowse and he was hitting, getting back on his feet and doing it again.

"He was showing genuine toughness and skill in that space.

"He's got great handling ability so for a big man, he can run at the line, get the ball out the back - you saw it against Leinster all the time with Colesy (Alex Coles) and Henry Pollock - and Ed is actually very good at that.

"He picks things up very quickly from a set-piece point of view, and I felt the scrum was holding him back - it was becoming a burden to him, stopping him from playing rugby and getting in the way of him playing.

"So I sat down with (Saints assistant coach) James Craig at the start of the season and we threw the idea around and said 'let's shift him back and see what he looks like in the second row'.

"I'd actually mooted it with (Bedford director of rugby) Mike Rayer last year when we were having discussions around players and how he found them.

"We moved him and he's been excellent.

"Allied to those elements of his game that I've elaborated on, is his attitude. He wants to play, he wants to fight.

"He's spent a lot of time in the environment not playing games, so now if you say 'Ed, do you want to play?' - he is hungry as anything to get stuck in.

"Ed's got some edge and some bite to him. He wants it, and the journey he's had this season has been exceptional, and that's in relation to his skill and his attitude."

Sadly for Prowse, his 2024/25 season didn't end on a high as he suffered a serious injury in the final-day encounter against the Cherry and Whites, forcing him from the field during the first half at Kingsholm last month.

Dowson said: "Unfortunately Ed Prowse dislocated his elbow in that game so couldn't travel to Albufeira (for Saints' end-of-season trip), which he was fairly heartbroken about!"