As last season’s final Premiership table confirmed, Northampton and Newcastle could not possibly have been further apart: the Saints sweeping all before them, the Falcons losing every match.
The glaring gap between them can also be viewed through a different prism.
Northampton is one of those rare English towns where the rugby club gets twice the support of the football club as last season’s average gates show: Saints 14,291, The Cobblers, Northampton Town FC, 6,841.
Meanwhile, up on Tyneside, Newcastle United’s current average of 52,105 works out at almost ten times more than the Falcons...