Dingwall: Saints focused on winning physical battle with Quins

We sat down with Northampton Saints’ centre Fraser Dingwall ahead of this Sunday’s Gallagher Premiership clash with Harlequins.

Q: You were one of seven Northampton Saints players to be called into England’s training squad this week, how excited is everyone about that? 
FD: It’s really pleasing news on that front. I’ve known Colesy since we were quite young – we’re both from Cambridge so I’ve known him for ages. I’m really happy for him, especially because he’s had a good bit of form off the back of last year and he’s continued it through to this year, so to see him get a reward for that is really pleasing. I’m also really happy to see Dave Ribbans back involved. I know he’s had his injury struggles at the back end of last year, but it’s a testament to how good of a player he is. I’m sure everyone will be eager to get into camp and just put their best foot forward. 

Q: What does it say about how things have developed at Saints that so many players are now being called up? 
FD: I think it’s just a great example of the level of coaching that we’re receiving here, the level of development that’s going on here. The people being selected is always a by-product, in my eyes, of the team doing well and if the team can do well and the team performs, the more people are going to be seen to be doing well too and they’ll pick up international recognition. It’s just a really good thing for the Club.

Q: How was your experience of being away with the England squad in Australia during the summer? 
FD: It was the first time I’ve been in camp for a sustained period of time, and I really enjoyed that, to be in the environment for longer, spend longer with the coaches and to be part of a campaign which ended up being really successful. Obviously, it didn’t go exactly how I wanted it to go in terms of rugby, but as a whole I’ve got a lot of fond memories of being in Australia, which is a really cool place, and us winning the series. 

Q: Back with Saints, are you getting used to being part of the leadership group in the squad? 
FD: It’s something I’m trying to constantly evolve. We’re fortunate here in that we’ve got loads of great leaders. Me and Luds [Lewis Ludlam] form the leadership team here, but in the squad we’ve got two international captains, so we’re not short of leaders. It’s just something I’m trying to constantly develop in my game. 

Q: What was it like captaining the team during times last season when Lewis Ludlam was away with England? 
FD: It was tough, to be honest, because it was through a period where we struggled to hit some form. We won against Worcester and then the next four games we lost by three or five points, all at the end. It was at a time during the Six Nations when a lot of key players had also away. It was definitely a strong learning experience for me, in terms of what the leadership role entailed, what captaining entailed, as well as being exposed a little bit more because there weren’t as many people around you. It was a strong learning experience for me and one I look back on really grateful for. Now I can hopefully take lessons from that and add it to my leadership style. 

Q: How do you reflect on the defeat against Leicester Tigers last week? 
FD: For the first 50-55 minutes we were really getting out of the game what we wanted to, in terms of getting our game on the pitch in really good patches. I think there were, unfortunately, just a few crucial moments where we swung momentum the other way and then, for the final 30 minutes, Leicester had momentum and we couldn’t wrestle it back from them. They’ve got a simple game plan, with things they fall back on, and we struggled to stop it. On top of that, you’ve got people going off the pitch and after going down to 12 men it became really hard to stop. That last 10 minutes I didn’t really feel was a reflection of the game. Probably the first 60 was more of what we wanted to achieve. 

Q: They’re obviously a very physical team, are you expecting a completely different type of game at Harlequins on Sunday? 
FD: It is a different challenge. The bottom line is every game in this league is going to be decided, more or less, by the collision aspect and the physical side of the game is always going to be massive because teams when they’re going forward are always going to be better in attack. Every team has a good attack and when they’re going forward, it becomes a lot easier. Similarly, in defence if you’re the ones winning the physical battle, it’s a lot easier to defend. It is a different challenge, but there are still going to be some themes which run true from Leicester to Quins at the weekend, and every team from then on. But it is a different challenge because Quins will move the ball to space, attack from here, there and everywhere and take a lot of opportunities when they can, whereas Leicester was a little bit more conservative. We would have been expecting to get the ball back a lot sooner off them. 

Q: How do you stop Quins’ attacking game? 
FD: They’ve got a lot of attacking threats all over the pitch and they’re a team that will move the ball to space, wherever they are. I think it’s about negating their go-forward initially and making it hard for them to play to space when they’re on the back foot. It’s negating their half-backs who make their game tick and just being alive to everything. It’s not necessarily a side who are going to give you the ball back after a certain amount of time, they’ll be alive to everything and any opportunity, so as much as we can be aware of those and try and reduce the amount of opportunities they get, that will probably be the important thing. 

Q: Do Saints take much out of defeating Quins in their last meeting, back in May? 
FD: We feel like we can beat any side as long as we perform, and that is something we really do believe in. When we review games it’s all about performance. It’s not so much about out-and-out result. Obviously, that’s what it comes down to, but we’re going after the performance because we know when we get things right for 80 minutes then we can beat any side in this league.