{"id":473676,"date":"2025-10-04T13:55:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T13:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/473676\/"},"modified":"2025-10-04T13:55:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T13:55:15","slug":"england-star-fin-smith-agrees-huge-deal-with-northampton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/473676\/","title":{"rendered":"England star Fin Smith agrees huge deal with Northampton"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Northampton<\/a> Saints have announced that England<\/a> and Lions<\/a> fly-half Fin Smith has signed a new multi-year contract to remain at Franklin\u2019s Gardens.<\/p>\n

Fissler Confidential broke the news eight days ago that Smith had become the first of Saints\u2019 England stars to agree a new deal with the club.<\/p>\n

Smith, 22, who was signed from Worcester<\/a> Warriors in 2022, was a major target for Newcastle<\/a> Red Bulls<\/a> next summer. He has scored 589 points in Black, Green and Gold and says that moving to the club has helped him mature.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve loved my time at Saints so far and feel like I\u2019ve developed massively as a person on and off the pitch. I turned up as a 19-year-old, a bit na\u00efve, probably just happy to find a team after everything that happened at Worcester.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to thank Northampton as a club and a place for helping me figure out who I want to be, how I want to play the game, and what it means to play here.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s shaped me in a big way. I came here as a young boy who was just trying to find his feet, develop his style, and compete for the shirt.<\/p>\n

\u201cA big goal I have written down for the next couple of years is to go to a Rugby World Cup. I\u2019ve absolutely loved my time playing at No.10 for England through the Six Nations<\/a> and the Autumn before.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s something I want to continue doing, and a reason for me wanting to stay playing in the PREM. There were other options for me to explore at the end of this contract cycle, but ultimately staying in Northampton felt right.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am close to my family here, and I genuinely love coming to work every day \u2013 being surrounded by my best mates, playing the kind of rugby that suits me.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd working within a coaching set-up that brings out the best in all of us. As a club, we\u2019re in a period where the core group have been together for a long time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe we can go on to be really successful, win a handful of trophies, and become a dominant force in the league. Personally, I want to keep striving to be the best player and person I can be, and be a big part of a successful team at Saints and with England,\u201d said Smith.<\/p>\n

Saints\u2019 Director of Rugby, Phil Dowson<\/a>, is delighted to keep Smith at the club and help the club\u2019s push for honours over the coming seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a huge testament to this club that we\u2019ve secured Fin\u2019s signature. Fin is a world-class player who\u2019s been outstanding for us since he joined.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe arrived at a time that was incredibly difficult for him personally, considering the demise of Worcester Warriors, and then had the added pressure of stepping into Dan Biggar\u2019s shoes.<\/p>\n

\u201cFin has never once shied away from any of it; he\u2019s not looked back and has more than stepped up into that leadership role at fly-half for us.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things we love about Fin is that he always wants to get better. Even though he\u2019s just gone on a British & Irish Lions tour, he wants more; he wanted to be playing in those Tests.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s an ambitious player, and he thinks that this club is the best place for him to achieve everything he wants to \u2013 and of course that\u2019s something we agree with.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost importantly, though, Fin\u2019s a good man who I\u2019ve got a lot of respect for. We\u2019re thrilled to keep a person like that within our environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sam Vesty, Head Coach at Saints, added: \u201cFin\u2019s a great person, a big character in the squad, and an absolute gentleman off the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cFin\u2019s a real leader of this squad; he wants us to be better as a team, and he puts a lot of emphasis on helping the people around him. That makes my life as a coach an easy one.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe also is unbelievably easy to coach, and has been an absolute pleasure to work with since he joined us. I\u2019m looking forward to continuing to work with him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Northampton Saints have announced that England and Lions fly-half Fin Smith has signed a new multi-year contract to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-473676","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115316242695768173","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}