BBC SPORT | Rugby Union | English | Saints strive for winning mix



By Simon Austin BBC Sport Online

It is rather fashionable for rugby coaches to say they want each of their players to go out and perform like a captain.

But Northampton Saints coach Wayne Smith plans to take that well-worn mantra a little further this season.

The impressive New Zealander says he will alternate captains on a weekly basis in an effort to make his players take on more responsibility.

Saints signings

Bruce Reihana (wing)

Oriol Ripol (wing)

Steve Williams (lock)

Mark Connors (back row)

Simon Hepher (back row)

It is one of many innovations Smith has introduced in an effort to turn Northampton into genuine title challengers.

He has signed several world-class players during the summer, such as New Zealand winger Bruce Reihana and Australian forward Mark Connors.

The Saints have also been put through a vigorous and exhausting close-season as Smith tries to engender team spirit in his squad.

It all seemed to be working well when the Saints held French giants Stade Francais in a thrilling draw at Franklin's Gardens last Saturday.

Smith admitted: "The performance was encouraging.

"We deliberately tired the guys out in the weeks before the game to learn about their characters and they still competed well against an excellent side."

Smith took over at Franklin's Gardens last November and transformed the Saints from relegation strugglers into Heineken Cup qualifiers.

Northampton Saints coach Wayne Smith
The former All Blacks coach says Northampton must improve further to give their passionate support the success they deserve.

"We have got to come up to the standard of our marvellous ground and fantastic crowd," he said.

"But we are not good enough to hypothesise about where we are going to finish this season.

"We need to improve our ball handling under pressure and perform more consistently, because these are areas that let us down last season."

Smith thinks his new signings will greatly improve Northampton's chances of success in the coming season, which kicks off with a trip to Sale Sharks.

Season preview: Northampton

And he is particularly excited by the prospect of Reihana and Ripol racing up the wings for his side.

"We lacked pace and ball skills out wide last season," he admitted.

"We didn't score enough tries from the wings and that's why I've brought Reihana and Ripol in.

"Bruce was one of the outstanding players in the Super 12s and for the New Zealand Maoris, while Ripol has got searing pace and was impressive for Rotherham last season."

Spanish winger Oriol Ripol
Ripol will add pace out wide
Smith is also committed to bringing homegrown players through at Franklin's Gardens.

"The youngsters are as important as the foreign signings," he insisted.

"And the likes of Robbie Morris, Mark Soden and Mark Tucker are as good as any of the players at this club."

And then there's that interesting idea of rotating the captaincy.

"We're doing it to take some pressure off Budge Pountney, who will be away on international duty a lot, and to encourage all of our players to take responsibility."

Northampton fans will hope Smith's new signings and fresh ideas bring some long-awaited success to Franklin's Gardens this season.


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