Prowse ready to push on at Saints after stunning transformation

He had spent his time maturing at Saints as a tighthead prop, but boss Phil Dowson wanted the young forward to try something different.

And so Prowse 2.0 was born as he transitioned into a lock.

"At the start of last season, Dows told me he wanted me to have a go in the second row rather than at tighthead so I could focus on what I’m good at, in terms of what I can do in the loose, rather than the set piece, which I wasn’t so good at," Prowse explained.

"It’s been a pretty seamless transition and I’m enjoying it.

"The way I play the game, it sort of made sense to focus on what I’m good at, rather than what I’m not good at.

"Scrums almost took away from my game and the scrum wasn’t going quite right, and I’d be overthinking that, so it’s allowed me to free up the other stuff.

"It was almost a make-or-break year for me, so the fact that I made it work and the coaches had faith in me has been really good.”

Prowse got some valuable second-row outings under his belt on loan at Bedford Blues in the Championship.

But he could never have envisaged how far he would eventually go in such a short space of time at Saints.

Prowse, who made his first second-row appearance for Saints from the bench in a cup clash with Nottingham last November, concluded the 2024/25 campaign by coming off the bench in the Investec Champions Cup final before captaining Saints at Gloucester seven days later.

"If you’d told me at the start of the season, after I’d got told to transition to the second row, I’d be playing in the Champions Cup final, I’d have told you there was absolutely no way," said the 24-year-old. "I was absolutely grateful for that; it was an unbelievable experience.

"Hopefully I’ll be able to do that again. You don’t get to play in many of those games, so you’ve got to take your chance when you’re there, and unfortunately we couldn’t, but I really enjoyed the experience.

"Now I’m really looking forward to this season. Hopefully I can kick on from where I left off last year, keep progressing and playing as much as possible."

Prowse smiles when he reflects on his outing as Saints skipper at Kingsholm. 'Short and sweet', he says, after he is asked about it.

"I got a pretty nasty injury in that game; I fell on my hand and dislocated my elbow and ruptured a lot of stuff in my elbow, so I had surgery the week after that, and I think it was about 12 weeks that I got back fit," he said.

"It was fairly quick, what I did, and I was pretty happy that I could get back for the first game (of this season).”

So how did he find his brief captaincy stint?

"It was definitely different – I’m probably not the most vocal player in terms of technical messages, so it was different but I definitely enjoyed the experience," Prowse said.

"I’m really appreciative of the coaches showing faith in me, long may it continue, I suppose."

Prowse's fairly rapid recovery has put him in a position to feature in the season opener on Friday as Saints go to Saracens in the PREM Rugby Cup.

"There’s loads of excitement, loads of energy," he said.

"We’re really excited to be getting back into the competitive games again.

"It’s been a long pre-season and everyone is just really excited for it again."