Northampton Saints’ Tommy Freeman on his international summer and the new season
Tommy Freeman made his debut for England against Australia this summer
©RFU Collection via Getty Images
It was announced last week that Tommy Freeman had signed a new long-term deal with Northampton Saints that will keep the England international at Franklin’s Gardens for a while yet.
Described as a “bona fide freak of an athlete” by his Director of Rugby, Phil Dowson, in the release, it isn’t hard to see why so many admire the 21-year-old.
This admiration for the tall, strong and dynamic back three player is what led to him earning multiple England call-ups and earning his first caps in the summer.
First lining up for Eddie Jones’ side against Australia in the second Test in Brisbane, Freeman looked instantly at home. Carrying the ball with confidence from the first moment he got his hands on it, England would win that game 25-17 and the third Test 21-17 in Sydney.
Taking to Test match rugby with such an apparent ease, Freeman says it was largely down to the calming nature of England’s head coach that he was able to look so unflustered down under.
“Eddie made me pretty relaxed before the game,” Freeman said. “He said ‘go find the ball, get your hands on it, get in the game early and do your thing’, which is obviously a weight off my shoulders, not having to worry.
“In the first Test I probably went chasing it a bit too much, whereas I probably could have waited for it to come to me, rather than having gone to chase it. It was a lot of fun.
“And the styles of play, the formation was pretty similar, but obviously having different players and playing with different people, you are not quite on the same page. But as you saw as the tournament went on, we built, and we got better and better.”
Leaving Australia as Test series winners, as a result of his involvement with the senior international side Freeman has been drip-fed back into the Saints environment.
Last season in Chris Boyd’s final season in the East Midlands, Northampton finished fourth in the Gallagher Premiership before being beaten by arch-rivals Leicester Tigers at the semi-final stage.
“I don’t really know how to reflect on that game,” Freeman said. “I thought performance wise we did all the right things, and we probably should have been having a few more points on our side at the end of that first half.
“It was difficult, but a bit of accuracy let us down at times, and decisions, but those games are so hard to reflect on because we know we should have won it, but we just missed out.
“Half of the game, we weren’t too disappointed how we played. Obviously, we wanted to come away with a result, but the hardest thing for me was knowing we could of won and when we didn’t was the toughest.
“They’ll stick around, but we’ll make sure this season we do it the right way.”
Freeman’s rise to the fore as an international rugby player has been a three year journey. First taking to the field in the 2019/20 season, where he also spent time dual-registered with Loughborough University, it was when Covid-19 struck that the former Leicester Tigers player became a regular at the Gardens.
It has by no means been easy for the player who can easily slot in at full-back or on the wing, who says a lot of tough love from his coaches has contributed to his successes thus far.
“I think the coaching staff have been really good,” he said. “Vesty [Sam, Northampton’s new head coach] has been on my tail since day dot really, was very hard on me in my first year, which to start with I probably didn’t see, but I am thankful now that he was so hard on me.
“But I think those coaches invest a lot of time in you, in terms of extras away from just training, which is really good, and I think that helps build me into a better player.
“I remember in my first year he would always say I make the really easy stuff look difficult. So, when I used to just do my really easy catch-pass he was hounding me, on top of me ‘do this, do this’, but then the old grubbers and the around the back door and all that, that came naturally to me and that was something I could just do.
“But in terms of that, he was hard on me on just nailing down my basic skills.”
While Freeman’s Northampton teammates open up the new season with a trip to the AJ Bell to play Sale Sharks, the 21-year-old will not be present.
Those supporting Saints will be gladdened to know that this has nothing to do with injury, but rather the back instead fulfilling his mandatory rest as a result of his international involvement.
The summer has mirrored the last in some ways, with Freeman having watched his teammates prepare from afar while recovering from a knee injury.
With fairly few changes at Franklin’s Gardens, Freeman says that that in the transition from Chris Boyd to Dowson has lost nothing of the magic that the team has been created in recent times, a place in the top four very much on the agenda.
“Chris and Dows are different, but I think the transition and Saints’ DNA is staying the same,” Freeman said. “But Dows will have his focuses and Boydy will have his focuses, so I think as the season comes on, how we play and what Dows wants out of us might differ throughout the season.”
Back in the fray in the coming weeks, Freeman has a big year ahead of him. This is in no short part as a result of England’s attack seemingly having clicked with the 21-year-old in the side.
Autumn Nations Series games against Argentina, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa are only a stone’s throw away, as is the Guinness Six Nations this winter and then, a Rugby World Cup in France.
