The fickle nature of the sporting world can often mean that a season is only deemed a success if you wind up with a trophy. For some teams, some players, some supporters, they wait years just to have the opportunity to do so.
Personally speaking, the past month has been right up there with the most enjoyable time I have spent at Northampton Saints.
At the start of our season, our main goals included being in a position to have the opportunity to win The Premiership. This means qualifying in the top 4 at the end of the regular season.
The fickle nature of the sporting world can often mean that a season is only deemed a success if you wind up with a trophy. For some teams, some players, some supporters, they wait years just to have the opportunity to do so.
Personally speaking, the past month has been right up there with the most enjoyable time I have spent at Northampton Saints.
At the start of our season, our main goals included being in a position to have the opportunity to win The Premiership. This means qualifying in the top 4 at the end of the regular season. Then you advance to the semi-finals, a one-off game to get through to the Final, at Twickenham, the home of English rugby.
We managed to do this, finishing the regular season in 2nd place, and the events that followed in the next 3 weeks will live long in the memory. Our second place finish had earned us a semi-final home tie against our East Midlands rivals Leicester Tigers. A tight match that we won with a try two minutes from time. The scenes at Franklins Gardens were pretty special at the final whistle.
The week after, we had the European Challenge Cup final, against Bath. The chance to win our first trophy since 2010. A match we were trailing in and showed great character and composure to overturn a half-time deficit and win the game. An amazing feeling to lift that trophy.
Then onto the big one. A week after the European Challenge Cup Final was the Aviva Premiership Final. It is the acid test for a club. The chance to call ourselves Champions of England. Something we had been working for all season. For years before even. Something that Northampton Saints had never been able to do in their history.
Is that pressure? In my eyes, it depends how you look at it. Pressure is merely an illusion. You know something’s there, it means so much to so many people, but people see it differently. It is not tangible. I’ve mentioned before that pressure is a by-product of opportunity. Now on this occasion, there is more on the line than any game we’d been involved in. Therefore, the opportunity is greater. And that is exciting to me. The opportunity to challenge yourself on the biggest stage, when the ‘pressure’ is at its greatest.
The club had never won this competition before. We’d lost the same Final the season before. It would be easy to go into your shell and hope for the best. But when something great is on the line, and you have quality opposition against you, hope will never suffice.
The team was confident that we could do it. We’ve learnt lessons as a club every year, we’ve worked relentlessly to improve, and consequently, I believe we are as strong as we’ve ever been. That confidence is what gives you the best chance to succeed. We’d done the work, now it was time to go out and do it.
The game was tied at full time, meaning extra time was to be played. Similar to the semi final, it took us until the final minute of extra time to score the match winning try. The championship-winning try. The best feeling I have ever felt on a rugby field. The reason that happened is because we never panicked when the odds were against us, we found a way to succeed. Everybody bought into that plan. Everybody performed their role. And everybody shared the success when we came through. Sharing with my teammates what we had been working towards for so long, what a feeling! It simply doesn’t get much better in a sporting sense.
Moving forwards, we’ll have a summer to enjoy a holiday and prepare for next season. We can improve so much and if we want to put ourselves in position to have the opportunity to win it again, we must get better. Standing still and resting on our laurels is not an option. We have to evolve, we have to be hungry to achieve again, and we have to thrive on the opportunity.