The Saints title defence is the central story of Northampton’s season, and this update, from 5 October 2026, brings the picture up to date. Phil Dowson has told the BBC Radio Northampton Saints Show that his squad is better placed to defend the Premiership than it was two years ago.
That claim rests on lessons learned since Saints won their first title in 2024, then slipped to eighth the following season. Dowson and scrum-half Alex Mitchell have both reflected on what went wrong, and on what has changed since.
Northampton Saints go into the new campaign as Premiership champions
Saints topped the table in 2025-2026, winning 14 of their 18 matches. They beat Exeter 26-17 at Allianz Stadium in June to lift the trophy.
It was the club’s second Premiership title. The first came in 2024, but Saints finished eighth the following season, a dip supporters have not forgotten.
No club has retained the title since Saracens won back-to-back championships in 2019. That history sits behind every question about this campaign.
What Phil Dowson says about the title defence
Dowson set out his thinking in the original Dowson interview on the BBC Radio Northampton Saints Show. He did not hide his frustration with the season that followed the 2024 title.
The 2024-2025 season was probably the most frustrating I’ve had from a coaching point of view, because we had such a good quality group.
He traced that frustration to the loss of experience in the front row.
We had really good capability but we didn’t have the consitency. That’s what 300 games plus of Alex Waller gives you.
Dowson says he and his coaching group have taken that lesson on board. He points to himself, the playing squad and sport psychologist Ollie Dixon as all better prepared this time to learn from what went wrong two years ago.
How the squad has changed since the title win
This summer brought departures. Saints lost George Furbank, James Ramm, Sam Graham, Tom James and Elliot Millar Mills.
The club moved to protect its spine elsewhere. Tommy Freeman, Fin Smith, Fraser Dingwall and Alex Mitchell have all signed new deals, and Henry Pollock is contracted until at least 2026-2027, as our Pollock contract report covered. Pollock has been a constant topic among supporters this year, something our Pollock transfer roundup followed closely.
Saints have also added tight-head prop Ion Neculai and Italian wing Malik Faissal. Dowson says the plan this time was to keep hold of that kind of experience, while giving the squad enough depth to get back into winning positions.
He admits that blending new arrivals into a title-winning squad takes time.
That’s also a time cost as well because you don’t know quite how the evolution of the squad is going to go.
Are Northampton Saints better placed to defend the Premiership title?
Dowson believes they are. Greater retained experience, fresh depth in key positions and firmer preparation are the reasons he gives for expecting Saints to cope better than they did two years ago.
Mitchell says the squad grew complacent after the 2024 win, assuming success would simply repeat itself.
When we won it in 2024 we just thought it was going to happen again, but you’ve got appreciate it’s tough to win the Prem,
He pointed to the unglamorous side of a long campaign.
It’s week-in, week-out and tough in the winter months.
He says training standards slipped after that first title, and that Saints have put it right.
You’ve got to keep turning up and training hard, and I don’t think we did that in 2025, but we came back in 2026. Hopefully we can go back-to-back this time.
Away form was a specific target. Mitchell says Saints struggled on the road in 2025 and worked hard to put that right in 2026, and the improvement played its part in winning the title.
That is the real test behind the Saints title defence: whether the lessons from a difficult season show up in results on the pitch.
What happens next
Saints have set out their reasoning. Dowson has kept hold of experience and blended in new signings, while Mitchell points to sharper training and improved away form as the fixes for 2025.
Whether that is enough to end Saracens’ spell as the last club to defend the title will be answered on the pitch. Supporters can follow the latest Saints news as the campaign unfolds.
