The Northampton and England flanker Calum Clark is to leave the club at the end of this season. The versatile forward, who is equally comfortable on the blindside or openside and has filled in at lock and No8 in the past, is likely to join the Premiership and European champions Saracens, according to reports.
Clark, who was Northampton’s 2014-15 player of the season, won a solitary international cap in a warm-up match against France before the 2015 World Cup but was a regular member of Stuart Lancaster’s training squads and has long been tipped as a promising back-row option for England; he was a particular favourite of Lancaster having worked with the deposed England coach in the junior ranks at Leeds. This season, however, his opportunities have been limited and he missed the whole of the last campaign with a serious shoulder injury.
This season the 27-year-old has found it hard to nail down a place for his club even as Northampton have struggled badly in pursuit of their traditional dominance up front. Tom Wood, the club captain and a direct rival in Clark’s position, has been in outstanding form and Eddie Jones, the England coach, appears to once again favour the Saints’ Teimana Harrison ahead of the forthcoming Six Nations. Jamie Gibson and Ben Nutley have also provided stiff competition for places on the flanks, while Louis Picamoles has been the player of the season so far at No8.
Clark did not help himself when he picked up a three-week ban for elbowing Worcester’s Donncha O’Callaghan in November. This followed the 32-week suspension he was given in 2012 for hyperextending the arm of the Leicester hooker Rob Hawkins. However, Clark’s disciplinary record and form between the two incidents were outstanding and he was most recently called up by England in 2015, shortly before his shoulder surgery.
