So, the Fat Lady has sang...

Northampton Saints tenure in the top flight of English club rugby has come to an end after 12 seasons.

Earlier today, Saints played themselves to a stand-still and defeated London Irish 27-22. All they needed now was for Worcester Warriors to succumb to the onslaught of Saracens and Premiership rugby would be maintained at Franklin’s Gardens.

It was not be. Worcester played the game of their lives just when they needed it and were comfortable winners, finishing the 22 game season one (bonus point) above Saints.

Quite frankly, Saints are where they are for a reason. Over the course of the season, Northampton have the worst record of the twelve teams in the Premiership and are quite rightly bottom.

We can talk of all the injuries, the loss of Jon Clarke and Bruce Reihana for big parts of the season and there are others, Dave Quinlan and Pat Barnard to name but two. However, a team who should have Premiership ambitions at the other end of the table should be able to cope with such set-backs.

Saints haven’t.

And let’s have no talk of expanded Premierships at this moment in time. We have no way of knowing will happen in the coming weeks and it is not something that should concern us. It is out of our hands. What we should be looking at is the “whys” and “wherefores” of how Saints have found themselves in this position with the talent that they have available to them.

Once the blood-letting has finished Saints must re-group and look forward to Division One with a purpose; to earn our right to play in the top flight. Until that happens, we shall play at a level which our results have deemed commensurate with our current status.

Finally, in 2004, former coach Wayne Smith, at the end of his time at Saints remarked:

“Unfortunately, the spirit we have been so proud of broke. It turned out to be a house of cards and collapsed under real pressure.”

The House of Cards that has been Northampton Saints over recent seasons has collapsed once again but this season, unlike in 2004/5, there will be no last minute reprieve on the field of play.

The match report of Saints’ final game in the Guinness Premiership for at least a season will published soon. In the meanwhile, why not have a look at our message-board to see the supporters’ reaction to relegation..…

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