Twenty years ago, Northampton Saints’ recruitment centred around players from overseas, not least South Africa.

It prompted a players’ revolt in 2005, which led to the departure of the South African head coach Alan Solomons, but today the Saints’ focus is on their catchment area, which extends east to Cambridgeshire.
Five Northampton players are in England’s elite player squad: George Furbank, Tommy Freeman, Alex Mitchell, Henry Pollock and Fin Smith, but none hails from the town.
Furbank was born in Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire, Freeman in Oxford, Mitchell in Maidstone, Pollock in Banbury ...