Northampton Saints chairman John White is to step down at the end of the season after eight years in the role.

A former player for the club, he saw Saints win the Premiership title for the first time in a decade last season, beating Bath in the final at Twickenham.

"After a lot of careful consideration I believe this is the right time to move on," he said in a statement., external

"The club is in great hands with our leadership team and commercial staff who continue to deliver strong growth year after year and, of course, our loyal supporter-base is second to none."

White, who replaced Tony Hewitt as chairman, said the Premiership success in 2024 was his proudest moment in 13 years since first joining the board.

Reflecting on his time at the club he added: "I am also extremely proud about the way we negotiated the pandemic, and how we have developed so many homegrown players from within our academy system over the last few years seeing several of those individuals also go on to become full and age-grade internationals has been extremely rewarding."