Northampton are making a name for themselves as English rugby's greatest showmen. With ambition and courage, the Saints have climbed to the top of the Premier League and play the most attractive rugby in the competition. This weekend the battle continues on a second front, with a Champions Cup quarter-final against the Bulls and, who knows, then a possible semi-final against Leinster or La Rochelle.
Phil Dowson, the director of rugby, is the smart, rational mind leading Northampton to new heights, but the mastermind behind the dazzling offensive is head coach Sam Vesty. Vesty, mainly a fly-half or full-back in his playing days at Leicester and Bath, left Worcester to join Northampton as attack coach in 2018 before overseeing the departure of former director of rugby Chris Boyd four years later.
Vesty may be the ringmaster of the Northampton circus, but between himself and Dowson there has also been courage and steel developed. 'Toughness' is how Vesty describes it. Playing heads-up rugby can be coached, but Midland's courage cannot. That's why, despite Saints' stylish modus operandi, Vesty still has time for an up-the-jumper approach.
"There is beauty in winning in different ways," Vesty told Telegraph Sport. "You can be a power team and go through the middle. That's good for the game, because you can win in different ways. But I think the whole game is getting better at it [moving the ball]. The more rugby I've seen lately - probably since the World Cup - I'd say more teams are opening up and taking a few more risks. The South African teams that historically had a reputation for kicking and chasing, those guys move the ball into space incredibly well and counter-attack fantastically. They open the game. The more I look at the French side, there is more of it.
"Is it because the referees are now being told that we want a faster match? The way the whistle is blown is to increase the playing time of the ball. Everyone wants the game to move faster and that's the direction it's going. People are getting on that bandwagon.
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"A good example is Finn Russell going to Bath. Suddenly the game opens up. Their attitude towards risks has changed.
"I think people realize that we want to put bums on chairs and inspire people to play this beautiful game of ours."
Vesty's impressive rugby intelligence and infectious enthusiasm for the sport are starting to make waves beyond his native East Midlands. In February, the 42-year-old took charge of the England A attack against Portugal, imparting his wisdom to the country's most promising players. His ethos, the secret to the Saints' success, is simple.
"A lot of people talk about a form of attack, but we have ours so we can get out of it as quickly as possible," he says. "We have the form to destructure a defense. Once a defense is destructured, we play with what is in front of us.
"When I started I was quite form-oriented, and as I've coached I've gotten further away from that. Watching Toulouse play, comparing the French attack - and its qualities - with the Irish attack, which have different qualities but are so effective in their own way. They would be two fantastic attacks that I greatly admire. Our offense has evolved, but I've simplified it over the years.
"We want to have a threat all over the pitch so that if there are thirteen defenders lined up there is a gap between each of them and we want to threaten each of those spaces as well as the areas behind them. the kick rooms. You start with a structure of line-outs, scrums and kick-offs. How do we destructure that D [clicks fingers] to then start playing what lies ahead?
"It's fantastic to watch - don't get me wrong, I love it - but the things we're focusing on are very simple: find two-on-ones and be good at picking them out. It's about encouraging people to find it and consistently emphasizing what enables us to do those things: raise our heads and talk. Stand up, look up, talk up. Follow these three principles and we will be good at rugby, because our players are good at rugby. Alex Mitchell is a damn good rugby player; we want to give him the opportunity to become a good rugby player and not burden him. Free him. From a mindset perspective - and not a technical perspective - it's about giving people the freedom to play what's in front of them. The number of times that, after asking 'what am I going to do now?', I say: 'Keep your head up and make a rugby decision'."
That makes no sense on a side with a soft underbelly - it sounds 'airy-fairy', as Vesty puts it. That's why Northampton has placed an emphasis on recruiting strong players and Vesty should know one when he sees one. A fourth-generation Tiger, Vesty began his playing career behind one of the most formidable teams in the history of European rugby, but in Pat Howard he also found attacking inspiration.
"I was at Leicester in an era where my formative years were with... my first captain was Martin Johnson," says Vesty. 'You just couldn't believe how happy you were. But the group there was ridiculous: Johnson, Ben Kay, Richard Cockerill, Dorian West, Neil Back, Martin Corry, Lewis Moody - and others. They were hard on themselves. Fundamentally, I loved it. It resonated with who I was and who I am. That was extremely formative. They were so damn tough, it was ridiculous. And tough people keep working hard. When the s- hits the fan, they keep working hard and that's what you need.
"Pat was my first [senior] coach and he always asked why we were trying to do certain things. I have taken a lot from him. But if I had stayed in one place, I would have been quite narrow-minded."
Fighting on both a domestic and European front comes with additional hurdles, but there is genuine excitement at Northampton; the Saints are undeterred by the magnitude of the challenge.
"Turn me around," says Vesty. "If the option isn't that... then I absolutely love it. This is what it's all about: testing yourself against the best. The back end of these competitions really tests you.
"And we are so excited! You're in a quarter - and you're either there or you're not. Flip, I'd rather be us - any day of the week. Yes, it's a bit stressful, but I'd rather have it than not. But ask me Monday morning!
"We go to work and a lot of what we do is fun. Our environment is a nice place to be; fun, cool, but we laugh at each other and ourselves."
Nice and cool? As it stands, that sums up the Saints nicely.
