Callum Chick revels in Northampton’s chase of lost causes after culture shock
To see what Callum Chick brings to any side he plays in, watch the 55th minute of Northampton’s electrifying win at the Rec last Saturday,Henry Arundell is speeding down the Bath right, nearly into Saints’ 22, after a defensive error by Henry Pollock,A try for the champions looks a certainty before the flanker desperately dives at Arundell and dislodges the ball from his grasp,A dextrous pick-up by George Hendy allows him to sprint downfield before setting up Pollock to dive over – 13 seconds after Arundell was threatening at the other end,“I showed that clip [to the squad] a couple of times,” said Northampton’s director of rugby, Phil Dowson, while preparing to meet Harlequins at Franklin’s Gardens on Saturday.
“I wanted to highlight the work of Chicky, chugging back as fast as he possibly could and just about getting a hand on him.“That effort, that hustle back and chasing lost causes is what gave us the opportunity to re-apply pressure and go the length.It’s those small things – the ability to stick at it.”Chick concedes he can’t take credit for the try – “I sat on the floor and watched Hendy run 80 metres” – but says Northampton scoring in such ruthless fashion from a turnover is no accident: “We pride ourselves on being one of the hardest-working teams off the ball.Those turnover opportunities or where the ball’s on the ground can be the best.
We practise it in training and speak about it all the time so it isn’t just luck, it’s a skill we practise and learn.”The combative back-rower left Newcastle last summer after a decade, citing his ambition to add to the two England caps he won under Eddie Jones in 2021.Having endured some difficult days last season, Northampton are riding high in the Prem and the 29-year-old’s arrival is one reason they have become harder to beat.“There’s a hard edge to the pack,” he says.“If you look at some of the stats around dominant carries and dominant tackles we’re top, or near top, in all of them.
” Northampton do indeed lead the way for dominant contacts, dominant carries and dominant tackles.“People like [South African lock] JJ van der Mescht, who’s a big human, really help with that.They are a bunch of good blokes who want to work hard for each other.You can have 15 fantastic rugby players who don’t want to be there and you’re terrible.”Swapping Newcastle for Northampton must have been a culture shock although his fellow geordie, the prop Trevor Davison, has helped Chick settle in.
What does he do for fun in his new home town? “That’s a great question,” he says.“When you find something, will you let me know?“I’m not going to lie, it’s a great town, but there’s not a huge amount to do.I live with [fellow flanker] Josh Kemeny so spend time with him and we get on really well.We go for the odd coffee or to the sauna.”On a more serious note, Chick explains how the rugby-obsessed Saints fans have welcomed him: “Everyone’s lovely.
If you wander the streets people say: ‘Well done’ or ‘How’s it going?’ It’s a bit different from Newcastle in that sense, that’s a very football-dominated city so you could wander about town pretty inconspicuously.“Northampton is really nice and everyone comes down on a Saturday – it’s another sellout this weekend.They love their rugby and that community feel makes all the difference.”Saints appear well-equipped for an assault on domestic and European silverware – Dowson rested several key players for the victory in Bath – and Chick knows that will be crucial come spring.“It’s a long season so rotation and having that strength in depth is really important,” he says.
“To get to knockout rugby you have to win games,But when knockout rugby comes, if you’ve had the chance to rotate and keep boys fresh, you’re in a much better place than if you’ve flogged everyone for six to seven months,”The former Newcastle captain is happy to see his boyhood club enter an exciting new era as the Red Bulls – “hugely important and hugely exciting for the area”, he says,“The players and fans deserve it, but on a deeper level it was looking pretty ominous at the end of last year for people having jobs,Just to keep people employed is hugely important.
They’ve done so much work over many years and it would have been horrible to see it go.”Newcastle will always have a place in Chick’s heart, but victory over Harlequins – and keeping Northampton on top – is all that matters now.
UK children to get chickenpox vaccine with measles, mumps and rubella jab
Children in the UK are to be immunised against chickenpox at the same time as measles, mumps and rubella.The NHS across the UK’s four home nations will administer a combined vaccine to young children to protect them against all four diseases from Friday.The measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) jab, which has been used since 1988, is being replaced by a combined MMRV vaccine that includes immunisation against chickenpox, also known as varicella.Infants will be offered two doses, at 12 and 18 months, to reduce their risk of catching chickenpox. The first appointments at GP surgeries to receive the vaccine are being held on Friday
The reason for Italy’s ‘demographic winter’ | Letters
The Italian “demographic winter” has a number of causes, but rising male biological infertility is not one (A child is born: Italians celebrate village’s first baby in 30 years, 26 December).A lot of worry about falling sperm counts has been generated by some studies, but a more recent meta‑analysis found, through inclusion of regional controls, an increase in US sperm counts between 1970 and 2018. Sperm counts may be falling in places like the Chinese province of Henan, which has substantial air and water pollution, but there is limited evidence that sperm counts are falling in the developed world.In 2024, the Pew Research Center asked women and men over 50 who never had children why they hadn’t. Around a third (31%) didn’t want them, but more prolific reasons included “it just never happened” (39%) and “didn’t find the right partner” (33%)
Two charities that received £1.1m from Sackler Trust kept anonymous to prevent ‘serious prejudice’
Two charities that received a combined total of more than £1.1m from the British charitable trust run by the Sackler family were kept out of its latest accounts to protect their reputations from “serious prejudice”.The trust, which draws on the Sackler fortune that came out of the US opioid crisis, gave £3.8m to arts, eduction and science bodies in 2024, according to its latest accounts, filed on New Year’s Eve.The largest named recipients – each receiving £250,000 – were Veterans Aid, which tackles homelessness in the ex-service community, and the Belvoir Cricket and Countryside Trust, which works to develop an appreciation for the British countryside and promotes a love of sport, especially cricket
High blood pressure: who is at risk and why UK children are getting it
High blood pressure was long considered a health problem of middle age, but rates are increasing in children and adolescents, with doctors reporting a surge in strokes among people of working age.Hypertension is the medical name for high blood pressure. It arises when blood pressure in the arteries, the vessels that carry blood from the heart to the brain and around the body, is consistently above a healthy level. It is often called a silent killer because it causes damage throughout the body without producing obvious symptoms.Blood pressure is usually measured with a blood pressure monitor, which wraps an inflatable cuff around the arm
Call for routine high blood pressure testing of UK children as cases almost double
Leading doctors have called for a national UK programme to monitor schoolchildren for high blood pressure amid concerns that rising rates in adolescents will increase cases of organ damage, strokes and heart attacks.Rates of high blood pressure have nearly doubled among children in the past 20 years, but no routine testing is performed in the UK, leaving doctors in the dark about the extent of the problem and which children need most help.Identifying teenagers with high blood pressure would enable GPs to intervene early and reduce the risk of organ damage and potentially life-threatening cardiovascular disease as people reach their 30s and 40s, doctors said.“We need to find out how bad the problem is, and that means finding a way to measure blood pressure in children who are still at school,” said Prof Manish Sinha, a consultant paediatric nephrologist at the Evelina London children’s hospital, Guy’s & St Thomas’s foundation hospitals NHS trust.“The fundamental issue is that people don’t recognise that hypertension can be a childhood problem
UK ministers face increased pressure to restrict gambling ads
Ministers will come under mounting pressure to introduce curbs on gambling advertising this year, as MPs and campaigners latch on to polling that indicates widespread public support for tougher restrictions.Policies affecting gambling have been the subject of fierce debate over recent years, leading to stricter regulation of the £12.5bn-a-year sector and higher taxes announced in November’s budget, despite intensive lobbying by the industry.But, while successive governments have brought in measures such as lower stake limits on online slot machines and a statutory levy to fund addiction treatment, gambling advertising has remained largely unaffected.New polling, shared with the Guardian, indicates strong public backing for a much less permissive approach to gambling ads, which have exploded in volume since deregulation by Tony Blair’s Labour government in 2005
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