News: Tom Wood Re-Signs for the Saints
By COYSDC
May 9 2011
Northampton Saints will announce today that Tom Wood has renewed his contract with the club
Wood has had a sensational first season at Franklin’s Gardens. Being named man of the match for his debut performance in the black, green and gold against Leicester last September proved to be a springboard for his career, and by the end of the 2010/11 regular season he was not just a Six Nations winner with England but on the shortlist for the Aviva Premiership Rugby Player of the Season as well.
The 24-year-old flanker, who also won the 2010 Churchill Cup with England Saxons, has so far played 22 times for the Saints.
Although he had a season left on his current contract Wood had no hesitation in signing a new two-year deal that takes his commitment to Northampton until the end of the 2013/14 season.
“I’ve definitely enjoyed my time at the Saints,” he said. “It couldn’t have gone much better really. Working with the players and coaches has been excellent and hopefully this will continue over the next few years.
“I knew I had a challenge to establish myself as a Saints player, especially with the quality players that we have in the back row, and everything else has been a bonus. I certainly had no hesitation in signing a new contract, and have no intention of going anywhere else.
“The club and town have more than lived up to my expectations. I knew I wanted to work with Jim, Dorian and Paul, and they have all spent a lot of time helping me with my game. And the fans have been brilliant, stopping me in the street to wish me good luck from day one.
“Hopefully we can finish the job this season and then build on that to bring more success to the club in the next few years.”
The news of Wood’s new deal comes just one day after the Saints announced a similar contract with Lee Dickson. Director of rugby Jim Mallinder said then that it was important that the squad at Franklin’s Gardens was being kept together to grow as a team over the next few years, a point he reiterated today.
“When you look around the Premiership and in Europe it quickly becomes clear that the clubs that are successful over long periods – such as the likes of Leicester, Toulouse, Munster and Leinster – are those whose squads are maintained over successive seasons,” he said. “This is what we are trying to do here at Franklin’s Gardens in order to compete at the top end of the Premiership and later stages of the Heineken Cup year in, year out.
“This is why Tom’s new contract is such a boost for the club. When he arrived last summer we knew that we were bringing in a good player, and his commitment and dedication on and off the field have helped him realise some of his potential. But he is still young and has plenty to learn, and all of the coaches are delighted that he will be developing here at the Saints.”
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Just gets better and better good stuff!Top of the League 2014-2015 Season
there will be some money in the pot. Wood and Dixon will certainly be signing with a payriseJim's philosophy to try and get stability has a couple of interesting ramifications, apart from it being absolutely correct. One is that many non English teams have done it without the restrictions of the salary cap. So by implication as players get more better they want more money and the club has to exist on a smaller squad. Like we are seeing with 'legal' teams. The other point is that, despite the strategy, rugby seems still to be in the rut of offering 2 year contracts. Why aren't more players locked into 3 year contracts or even 4 year ones?
It is fantastic that Jim is thinking long term. It also implies that the first team does not need much strengthening but the support squad does. Hence the recruitment we are seeing. Though some coming in will not see themselves as squad players I hope.
the french teams seem to have accepted that for good players happy at strongly performing clubs, they will vie for that players 3rd, 4th or even 5th pro contract ; let them first satisfy their international ambitions.
however, we now have bath and saracens looking to buy in top talent at an earlier stage and at figures unaffordable even by leicester - and clearly not waiting until any artificial date to approach players
it therefore makes increasing sense to take steps to avoid any unpleasant surprises at 12.15 AM on 1st january in a player's final year, when you thought you were slowly moving towards a renewal with one of your marquee players.
