England internationals Courtney Lawes and Lewis Ludlam have signed contract extensions at Northampton Saints, the club announced on Tuesday.
Fellow England teammates Teimana Harrison, Piers Francis and George Furbank also extended their deals at the club, while Wales fly-half Dan Biggar and Scotland centre Rory Hutchinson also agreed new terms.
This year’s England debutants Alex Mitchell, Alex Moon and Fraser Dingwall were among 19 first team players to commit their futures to the club including co-captain Alex Waller.
“Getting so many influential players bought in to what we’re trying to achieve, and committed to staying with us for an additional two or three years, is a huge coup for Saints,” director of rugby Chris Boyd said.
“The connection and cooperation of our players to back the club long-term has been great to see.
“We firmly believe we have the players in place already at Franklin’s Gardens to compete at the very highest level of English and European rugby, and to challenge for every trophy available to us.
“We have a great balance of emerging and world-class players at our disposal, with a home-grown spine to the team, so it was vital for us to keep this exciting group together and build the core of our side.
“Moreover, 17 of these 19 players are English qualified; part of our responsibility is to produce players capable of representing England and we are confident we can continue to do that within this group and throughout the rest of the squad in the coming years.
“The entire squad and staff deserve huge credit for how they have handled the situation caused by the pandemic over the last few months.
“There’s been a massive amount of effort put in behind the scenes to make sure everyone remains together, and now we’re training again you can see how hungry our players are to rip in to matches when it is safe to do so.”
Northampton were in 4th place in the Gallagher Premiership before the season was brought to a halt due to the coronavirus pandemic in March.