Saints to start pre-season campaign with trip to Bedford Blues

Saints will travel to face the Championship side on Saturday, August 26.

General sale tickets for the clash, which kicks off at 1.30pm in advance of England’s World Cup warm-up match against Fiji, will go on sale via Bedford Blues at the start of August.

Phil Dowson’s side will take to the field for the first time following a long pre-season training schedule which began in mid-June, and the encounter with the Blues will be followed by a home game against the Barbarians on Saturday, September 2 (kick-off 2pm).

Those matches will provide a warm-up ahead of the start of the new-look Premiership Rugby Cup competition, which will begin for Saints with a televised trip to Ealing Trailfinders on Sunday, September 10.

The pre-season encounter against Bedford has become something of a tradition and it is a fixture with more than 130 years of history. The two sides first met in 1887.

They last locked horns in pre-season 12 months ago in Northampton, as Saints ran out 40-26 victors in a 10-try thriller at cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens.

This will be the third game between the sides since their strategic partnership began back in June 2020, with the first a 40-21 win for Saints in Bedford.

The Mobbs Memorial Match will soon take on a new format, as announced earlier this year, with the fixture set to be contested annually during pre-season between Saints and Bedford.

However, this format will begin at the start of the 2024/25 season and does not include this year’s game.