{"id":632824,"date":"2026-06-11T09:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T09:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/632824\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T09:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T09:48:08","slug":"northampton-saints-v-leicester-tigers-an-epic-derby-showdown-in-race-for-prem-glory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/632824\/","title":{"rendered":"Northampton Saints v Leicester Tigers: An ‘epic’ derby showdown in race for Prem glory"},"content":{"rendered":"

An “epic” in the making, a derby showdown that spreads “infectious energy”.<\/p>\n

Northampton Saints full-back George Furbank and Leicester Tigers winger Adam Radwan were not short of grandiose sentiment when looking ahead to the 262nd meeting of the East Midlands rivals.<\/p>\n

History – 138 years of it \u2013 binds together two giants of English rugby union that are separated by less than 30 miles.<\/p>\n

Under the lights at cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens on Friday, Saints host their regional neighbours in the first of the Prem semi-finals.<\/p>\n

Northampton topped the league standings to earn the right to host Tigers, who finished fourth in the table after back-to-back defeats ended their regular season.<\/p>\n

“My first thought was this is going be an epic game, and it adds to the occasion here,” Furbank told BBC Radio Northampton.<\/a><\/p>\n

When Furbank talks about the rivalry, he does so as a lifelong Northampton fan who grew up on a diet of derby drama.<\/p>\n

Tigers winger Radwan, who moved to Leicester from Newcastle in January 2025, does not have the same back catalogue of derby experiences \u2013 but the significance of the occasion is not lost on him.<\/p>\n

“There is always a little bit of extra fire,” Radwan told BBC East Midlands Today.<\/a><\/p>\n

“I’m not a Leicester lad by origin, but as soon as you come to the club you understand the importance of these games. As soon as we found out the fixtures, there is that extra edge around training and everything.<\/p>\n

“It’s like a really infectious energy and we are just trying to bottle that up and keep it there for Friday.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An “epic” in the making, a derby showdown that spreads “infectious energy”. Northampton Saints full-back George Furbank and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-632824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}