Northampton Saints add Lee Radford to coaching group

Northampton Saints have announced that former rugby league international Lee Radford has been appointed as the new defence coach of the club.

During a playing career which spanned 17 years, Radford made 158 appearances for Bradford Bulls in-between two spells at hometown club Hull FC (where he played 193 matches in total), and earned five international caps for England.

The 44-year-old's coaching career started at rugby union side Hull RUFC in National 2 North at the end of his playing career and went on to become their head coach in 2013 in which they went on to win back to back Challenge Cup titles in 2016 and 2017. He was appointed Castleford Tigers’ head coach from the start of 2022 and was Samoa's defence coach in the 2022 Rugby League World Cup in England.

“Speaking to Phil and Sam gave me a really good feeling of what Northampton Saints are about, and also a great indication about their relationship as well, as you can tell there is a real closeness there in terms of how they work together," he told the club's official website.

“That was really appealing to me, as those relationships are so important within an elite rugby environment, and coming down to look around the Club just reaffirmed all the great things they said about the place, the people, and the infrastructure here.

“Saints places the youth structure and production of homegrown talent at the very heart of what they do, which really closely aligns to my experience during my coaching career so far as well.”