Saints model is one Newcastle 'admire greatly', says head coach Dickens
Alan Dickens says Newcastle Red Bulls are looking to emulate the Saints approach in the long term.
Dickens was a player and then coach at Saints for a decade so it is a club he knows extremely well.
He is now Newcastle head coach, helping the Red Bulls to take steps forward following the recent investment in the Kingston Park club.
Dickens will bring his team to cinch Stadium at Franklin's Gardens on Saturday evening as Saints host Newcastle in a PREM Rugby Cup pool stage clash (kick-off 5.30pm).
And ahead of that encounter, Dickens told the Newcastle website: “It’s no secret that Northampton have got guys away with internationals, but they’ve got a great model and plenty of quality coming through their Academy.
“I spent many years there, so I’ve seen it first-hand. It’s a model that we admire greatly, and we’ll be looking to do similar up here in many ways in the long term.
“They use the cup to blood a lot of players, many of whom have gone on to international honours, and nobody here is under the impression that it will be an easy game.”
Newcastle started their cup campaign with a bonus-point win against Harlequins but were edged out by Leicester Tigers last time out.
And Dickens said: “You go into every game wanting to put in a performance and ultimately get the victory, and the cup is no different.
“We had a good start in this competition by winning against Harlequins, then a narrow defeat to Leicester a fortnight ago. It was disappointing to lose that game but there were a number of positive aspects we can build on, and we’ll be looking to show that on Saturday.”
The Newcastle squad spent much of last week at a training camp in Yorkshire.
Dickens explained: “We’ve had lots of additions coming in at various times over the last few months, and there was a feeling among the players that they would benefit from a cohesion perspective by coming together in camp.
“It’s the kind of thing you’d typically do in pre-season, but just with the way things worked out in terms of doing our recruitment later on in the cycle it has meant we’ve been able to do it in this early-season break.
“It was really beneficial to get quality time together on and off the field, and as well as the typical rugby training and gym work we had various activities going on around it to help us make those strong connections.”