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24th May 2025
06:08pm BST
After their shock win over Leinster in the semi-finals of the Champions Cup, Northampton fell just short in final against Bordeaux, losing 28-20.
Nonetheless, it was further proof of the ability and potential of what is a side packed full of young English talent, some of whom are going on the Lions tour this summer.
Fin Smith, 23, Tommy Freeman, 24, Henry Pollock, 20, and the 'middle-aged' Alex Mitchell, 27, have been named in Andy Farrell's squad to tour Australia.
After today's final at the Principality Stadium, former Leinster and Ireland international, Jamie Heaslip, explained why Ireland should be worried.
On punditry duty with RTÉ, he said: "They're all relatively young, and all on the cusp of having the potential to become, I'm not sure generational players, but top, world type players, which is scary from an Irish perspective, when we play them next year in the Six Nations.
"But they'll go away to the Lions and they'll learn so much as well. They've gotten to this level, they'll learn off all the other players, see the different habits, they'll see the different coaching environment, they'll see what Andy will bring to it in terms of how he approaches the game.
"And they'll soak that all up and that'll make them better players.
"Every single tour that I was on, and talking to other Lions, different tours they were on, you always come back a better player from them."
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