Northampton Saints 2024/25: Tom Vickers' season preview

So it seems like a good time to reflect on an interview he did with this publication in the build-up to last season's Gallagher Premiership semi-final against Saracens.

Wood was discussing the difference between the 2014 and 2015 play-off semi-finals.

Saints prevailed in 2014, beating Leicester Tigers before seeing off Saracens in the showpiece as they claimed their first Premiership title.

But in 2015, though they finished top of the table, they couldn't go back-to-back, falling flat in the semi-final against Saracens, who secured revenge on a deflating day at the Gardens.

This season, for the first time in 10 years, and only the second time in their history, the black, green and gold will look to defend a Premiership title.

So what can this group learn from the 2014 crop, a talented team who, Wood admits, just couldn't quite evolve as they needed to in order to create a period of prolonged success?

"I guess some of it comes down to expectation," Wood said back in May. "We were the champions after what happened in 2014, we'd won the league outright, we'd actually been better that season overall than we'd been when we'd won it the year before.

"Everyone is kind of guilty of becoming a bit used to it because we'd been to the final in 2013, we'd been to the final in 2014, it felt like we had plateued somewhat and everyone was comfortable with semi-finals and finals.

"There was a natural expectation and that game (the semi-final against Saracens) didn't have the same desperation to it as the year before, having never previously won it.

"I think 2014 was like the culmination of four or five years of narrowly missing out, always being the bridesmaids, going to multiple semi-finals and finals and never getting one over the line.

"I think 2015 was like when you've won it, where do you go from there?

"In the years after that, it was one of my biggest frustrations because a few of us players became very frustrated that as a playing group, it felt like we'd stopped evolving.

"It felt like we had the winning formula in 2014 and thought we could just keep regurgitating that blueprint and get the same outcome.

"Of course, everyone else develops, they work you out slightly and it's the whole hungry wolf analogy that everyone else is desperate and if you stand still for too long, they overtake you."

This summer, Saints certainly haven't stood still.

Some of the squad changes have not been of their choosing. They would have liked to have kept the likes of Sam Matavesi, Alex Moon, Courtney Lawes and Lewis Ludlam.

But sizeable offers from France meant that wasn't a possibility.

However, Saints have moved to bring in the likes of lock Callum Hunter-Hill and flanker Josh Kemeny, both of whom have been hugely impressive during pre-season.

And Phil Dowson has managed to keep hold of the majority of the players he will want to build his squad around this season and in years to come.

The likes of Tom Pearson, Alex Mitchell, Fin Smith and new club captain George Furbank remain at the Gardens.

And there are high hopes for talented Academy graduates like Henry Pollock and Archie McParland to take another big step forward this season.

Saints are a development club who have certainly developed hugely under the tutelage of the current coaching staff.

And though they are now the hunted rather than the hunters, they still have the talent needed to deliver on the biggest stages.

Of course other clubs will get better; the likes of beaten finalists Bath as well as Leicester Tigers, who now have Michael Cheika in charge, are fancied to impress.

But this Saints side should not be written off.

They, as every team does, will need some good fortune on the injury front.

They have already been hit with a few blows, notably the loss of Burger Odendaal and George Hendy, before the new campaign has kicked off.

But last season, Dowson and Co managed to build a squad that could cope as player after player stepped up when called upon.

It meant the likes of Rory Hutchinson, Tom Seabrook and James Ramm didn't even make the matchday 23 for the Premiership final.

Those are some serious options, and the coaches will hope for similar selection dilemmas throughout this campaign.

It all gets started at a ground where Saints have had little success in recent times.

And they will come up against a Bath side desperate to turn the tables after they lost to the black, green and gold during an enthralling Premiership final back in June.

There is no doubt that Johann van Graan's men are going to be hungry like the wolves this week, with no shortage of fuel for their fire.

They will want revenge and they will want to show that this is going to be their season.

Saints are going to have to match that appetite and they are going to have to show that they are ready to scale the mountain again.

Because if you think you've reached the summit, the only way is down.

Instead, the black, green and gold should have huge ambition of their own.

They should be desperate to become the first Saints side to defend a Premiership title.

And what better way to show how much they want it than by slaying a fired-up Bath team on their own turf.

It is a mouthwatering season opener full of intrigue.

And Saints certainly shouldn't be overawed by being the team everyone now wants to beat.

They should use it to carry the kind of swagger that Saracens had when they were enjoying their lengthy period of dominance.

Back then, they would rock up at grounds and it almost felt they had a headstart, such was the 'Wolfpack's' reputation for winning.

Saints would love to build that kind of fear factor, making other teams wary of what's to come.

And they have the chance to lay the foundations for that this week if they can find a way to produce a statement performance at one of their unhappy hunting grounds.