The professional rugby calendar is unforgiving, with the pre-season weeks fast approaching in preparation for the 2024/25 Gallagher Premiership season. The top flight of English football returns on Friday 20 September, and Northampton Saints scrum-half Alex Mitchell is looking forward to his club’s opening match, which will take centre stage on Saturday.
Mitchell has endured a turbulent few months since lifting the Premiership’s most prestigious trophy, and has had little time to reflect on his performance. International commitments soon claimed the leading scrum-half, with Steve Borthwick booking Mitchell a seat on the plane for the 2024 summer tour of Japan and New Zealand.
Mitchell has established himself as Borthwick’s most important player in the No.9 shirt and continued to demonstrate his positional dominance in the three Test matches. Mitchell’s season has been extended to a grueling 13 months, but the scrum-half has certainly taken some valuable lessons home from the land of the All Blacks, the East Midlands.
“They (New Zealand) are a top-class team, always in the top four in the world. You want to play against the best and I think you realise that in a friendly match you have half a second less time. The physicality increases. You have to manage the game better. You have to stay in the moment all the time and the consistency of the game, whether it’s passing, kicking, running or defence, it’s all important.
“Sometimes you can get away with it in the Premiership or other games but you can’t do it at this level. So it’s definitely good to learn that and try to take it to the Saints and go from there.”
Mitchell then admitted he was frustrated with the recent two-match Test series in New Zealand, as England missed the chance to “make history”. Steve Borthwick’s side were narrowly beaten by just one point (16-15) in the first Test in Dunedin, before suffering an even heavier 24-17 defeat at their Auckland fortress. Mitchell would have loved to see England end their 21-year wait for a win against the All Blacks on New Zealand soil, or better yet, end the All Blacks’ 30-year winning streak at Eden Park.
“After the game I was obviously a little down and frustrated because I think we were a little off the mark. I felt like we could have won both games. I think we had a chance to rewrite history in a way at Eden Park. It’s obviously frustrating but they were a good team and we didn’t do our job and weren’t good enough on the day. I want to take it with composure and of course a rematch when we’re there in the autumn, which is also fantastic.”
With a rematch against the All Blacks at the Allianz Stadium in Twickenham on the first weekend in November, Steve Borthwick needs to make some important changes to his coaching staff in time for the upcoming Autumn Internationals. Borthwick recently witnessed the unexpected departure of strength and conditioning coach Aled Walters to the Irish national team, before defence coach Felix Jones also left the national team.
Mitchell echoed the sentiments of his Northampton and England teammate George Furbank, who said the two departures were not expected at all. The scrum-half expressed how much he will miss the two backroom staff but expects Borthwick to make the right decision when appointing the new members of his coaching team.
“It’s obviously a bit of a surprise. They’re fantastic coaches. Really good guys and it’s great to have them in camp. So I haven’t really thought much about it, it only came out recently, right? Of course I’m going to miss him (Felix Jones), miss him a lot. I don’t know how far they’ll go, if they’ll go all the way or anything. They’re great coaches and I wish them the best in whatever they do next.”
“I think we chatted about it briefly. Obviously we saw it online or one of the guys knew about it. We talked about it briefly that obviously it was a bit of a surprise but it’s nothing to do with us really. We’re the players so they’ll sort it out no matter what the coaching staff looks like and we just show up and do our best at training.”
In revenge for the 2023/24 Premiership final, Northampton travel to the Rec to face Bath on the first weekend of the 2024/25 season. The Blue, Black and Whites will be looking to make amends for their silverware and Mitchell will be keen to start the season with a win against one of the Saints’ top contenders for the Premiership crown.
While it’s a classic rugby cliche to “take each game as it comes”, there’s no denying the personal pride that’s at stake as last season’s finalists prepare to do battle in the opening round of the new season. Mitchell is well aware of this, and gave his thoughts on the game at a recent Northampton Saints press conference.
“I think a bit of both. Obviously it’s the first game of the season so it’s the first blow for a lot of the lads, a few new lads, but we know it’s going to be a massive, a massive game. They (Bath) are going to be one of the best teams in the league. I don’t think they’ve lost many lads so it’s a great sign for us, especially with them.
“It’s a difficult place to see where we are. We’ll take a lot from it and learn from it. Hopefully we get the result and can go from there. But it’s very exciting for a first game.”
The two teams in the matchday line-ups will look different on the opening matchday to those that lined up at Twickenham for the final game of last league season. Northampton in particular have undergone a massive line-up shake-up, with club legends such as Courtney Lawes, Lewis Ludlam and Alex Waller ending their time at the famous green, black and gold.
Mitchell recognised that he needed to take the lead following the exodus of the three leading players and a number of other senior figures leaving Franklin’s Gardens. Despite being just 27, the English halfback is one of the older players in the Northampton team. Along with other ‘elders’ such as Rory Hutchinson (28) and Elliot Millar-Mills (32), Mitchell is ready to take on a greater leadership role in the new season.
“We have a group that plans the plays. We always go through the game plans and think about what we want to accomplish over the course of the year. We’ll go through that too. But it’s early. I think it’s only day two for us. So we’ve got a couple of weeks until the first real game and then we’ll see. So we’ve got a couple of leaders that have to step in, obviously Courtney and Luds are missing, they’re huge, huge losses. But it’s exciting that a couple of guys are doing it.”
“I think I was the first pick in the draft for the (dressing room) lockers because it goes by caps and there are two caps for internationals. So I think Hutch (Rory Hutchinson) and I each picked 166 or 167.”
“Hutch thinks he’s the old guy, he walks around like he owns the place! I guess it’s people like Hutch and I and Furbs (George Furbank), we have such a young bunch, it’s totally different!”
Despite wearing Premiership winners’ medals around their necks, the Northampton Saints boys head into the new season with no added pressure. While reaching the proverbial summit is always an impressive achievement, staying up there is arguably a tougher task, with countless challengers trying to push the Saints back down the table.
Mitchell dismissed the notion that it’s “only down” as the Saints enter the 2024/25 Premiership season as defending champions, instead expecting his teammates to build on their past successes and give their loyal fans at the Cineasten Stadium added confidence.
“Not really, I haven’t thought about it that much. I for one am excited. I think last year we probably weren’t the favorites and I’m not sure we’re favorites again this year, but it’s another great opportunity to win the title.
“We know, of course, that it’s a big challenge again. I think someone said about the league in general that it’s the most competitive league in all sports. I think it’s great to see that. But of course we want to try again and win.”
