Luke Green, Fyn Brown, and Archie Benson have all signed with the Northampton Saints ahead of the 2024–2025 season.
The three players, who come from the San Diego Legion, Doncaster Knights, and Luctonians, respectively, join the Saints, and Phil Dowson, Director of Rugby, is eager to see what Green, Brown, and Benson can accomplish at the Gallagher Premiership level the following season.
“We’re ecstatic to have Luke, Fyn, and Archie join the Northampton Saints,” he declared. “Over the past few years, some of our best acquisitions have been players who haven’t always taken the ‘conventional’ path to the Premiership.
“You only need to look at players like Elliot Millar Mills, Tom James, Sam Graham, Sam Matavesi, and so on to see the kind of players we can add to our roster from the Championship and beyond.
LUKE GREEN
Green, 22, travels from San Diego Legion, where he is presently participating in his second Major League Rugby season, to Cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens.
The tighthead prop, who joined the London Irish Academy at the age of 15, earned eight caps for the U20s, and won a Six Nations Grand Slam in 2021. He represented England at the Under-18 and Under-20 levels.
Before heading across the pond to San Diego, he made a total of eight games for the Exiles, including several on loan at Championship team Ampthill. His Exiles debut came in the 2020 European Challenge Cup against Agen.
Green, who weighs 120 kg and is 6′ 2″, is a powerful scrummager who is also nimble and explosive when free. To far, he has made 15 Major appearances for Legion in League Rugby, 14 of which were as a starter.
Luke was scheduled to play for the team in the Premiership Rugby Cup earlier in the season, and during training, Dowson stated, “We were really impressed with Luke’s attitude and what he could do.”
“If he hadn’t been hurt during that PRC block, we would have seen him in Black, Green, and Gold already. However, good props that can play tighthead and loosehead are hard to come by, and he’s been doing some impressive things with San Diego in the MLR under Alex Corbisiero’s coaching, who also thinks highly of him.”
FYN BROWN
Brown, who has played for one season and made 19 appearances for the Championship team Doncaster Knights, will join Saints.
The 21-year-old signed with the former Gallagher Premiership team Wasps right out of high school, and he made his professional debut against Leicester Tigers at the age of 18.
In his debut season at Wasps, he played on a dual registration for Birmingham Moseley in National League 1 and frequently participated in the Premiership Rugby Cup.
Following the club’s administration, the 6’4″ back row signed with Ampthill, where he played in 18 Championship games in a single season before moving to Doncaster in 2023.
Dowson stated: “After spending some time with Fyn at Wasps, Tom Cruse had nothing but positive things to say about his attitude.
“He’s playing well now at Doncaster, and with Tom James and Sam Graham both joining Northampton from the Knights, that’s clearly a well-trod path for us.
“He can cover the second row and is primarily a No. 6; we are really excited to have him join our squad and watch how far he can go.”
ARCHIE BENSON
After leading the National League 2 West team to their best-ever league finishes in back-to-back seasons, Benson leaves Luctonians to join Northampton.
The back row, a constant in the Luctionians lineup, appeared in 26 league games this season alone as Lucs finished second in the standings.
Upon graduating from Dean Close School in Cheltenham, where he captained the 1st XV and represented England at the Under-18 level, Benson, 23, signed with Gloucester’s Academy.
After making an impression during his trial at the Saints earlier this season, the 6’6″, 106kg flanker—who is currently a student at Harper Adams University studying agriculture—signed a full-time contract to play at Cinch Stadium in Franklin’s Gardens.
Archie was recommended to us by Jim Henry, the Academy Coach, as a talented young player who had previously attended Gloucester’s Academy and was currently excelling at Luctonians, according to Dowson.
“Earlier this season, we brought him in for a week-long trial here in Northampton, and we were really impressed with both his ability and his enthusiasm towards improving as a player. He is big, rangy and agile, and he runs some nice lines because he knows the game, which is something we really appreciated about him on the pitch.
He has a strong work ethic and has been training with our strength and conditioning specialists whenever he can since joining to ensure he’s giving himself the best chance to succeed when he comes on a full-time basis in the summer.
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