Freeman urges Saints to make flying start in 2023

With Northampton Saints currently on a bye week in the Gallagher Premiership, we sat down with versatile back Tommy Freeman to reflect on a whirlwind 2022 as the 21-year-old cemented his place in the first team for the men in Black, Green and Gold, and pulled on an England shirt for the first time in Australia…

Q: Despite a much-improved performance, Northampton Saints could not come from behind to defeat Munster last Sunday. What were your reflections on that game?
TF: We were getting into their 22 and, obviously, we were really chuffed with that part of our game but converting points was a bit of a struggle. We’re still finding things out and we’re training hard to work it out, but Munster, defensively, was a massive change from La Rochelle. They came into our 22 a few times and we held them out for long phases and, with penalties, got the ball back so that was definitely a bonus.

Q: How much do you take out of the second-half performance, in particular?
TF: Territory is obviously massive and we said that at half-time, when we said it was not going to be a game of fancy rugby of us moving the ball about. Everything was going to be a bit shorter, with the weather as well coming down, so we just wanted to keep turning them and putting pressure on them, which I think we did and for the majority of the second half we ended up in their 22 for about 15 to 20 minutes, but we just couldn’t convert the points.

Q: With that, we’ve reached the halfway point of the season, how would you sum up the campaign so far?
TF: It’s definitely been a mixed bag. Obviously, the European games didn’t go quite how we wanted them to go. We always want to win, but I think it showed us where we’re at as a team. When we go into these competitions, we don’t want to be there not looking developed, we’re up against the best of the best and that’s where we want to be. The Premiership I would say as well was a mixed bag. In our game, our attack has been pretty good, but in some games our defence hasn’t really been on the ball. Obviously, getting into the opponents’ 22 hasn’t been a problem for us, but we’ve just got to convert better and we’ll keep picking away at training on how we can do that.

Q: Overall though, 2022 has been quite a memorable year for you…
TF: Yeah, definitely. Obviously, the tour to Australia [with England] before this season was amazing and making my debut and getting a couple of games was unbelievable. I was also involved this autumn, and while that was not quite how I wanted the games to go, it was definitely a good learning process for me.

Q: Where would you say you’ve developed as a player over the last 12 months?
TF: I feel like I’ve come on from being a little boy to probably being targeted a little more when playing – I’ve definitely noticed that! Sam Vesty, Dows [Phil Dowson] and Vassy [Ian Vass] have helped me massively in my defence and attack, and being involved with England with Eddie Jones and all the coaches there has meant areas of my game are continuing to develop, and hopefully that will continue.

Q: You touched on opponents looking out for you more now, does this mean you have to be a bit smarter when it comes to finding space on the pitch?
TF: A little bit. I remember Vassy saying after my breakthrough year that it’s not going to be too easy running through as much because people are going to target you. You’ve got to be as unpredictable as possible when you’ve got the ball, and out of structure what you do with the ball is also where you’ve got to be unpredictable. Obviously, you’ve got to stay in structure, and things like that, but if you carry on playing your game things will sometimes just open up for you. I’m quite pleased to sometimes be in the right place at the right time.

Q: What parts of your game do you still feel you need to work on?
TF: Defensively, I massively need to improve in that area. That’s a big part of my game that I’m always trying to develop and it’s probably the hardest part of the game. Attacking comes quite naturally to me, but defence and picking up cues in how people attack is a massive skill to have. It’s important to look at teams before playing them and pick up their traits. That will give you cues in a game and it’s then about being physical when you are ready to be physical. In attack, I could probably develop by remaining physical all the time and always staying in the game.

Q: Looking back on your time with England this year, did it help having some of your fellow Saints (Fraser Dingwall, George Furbank, Courtney Lawes and Lewis Ludlam) on tour with you in Australia?
TF: Having Dingers, Furbs, Luds and Courts there definitely helped. I shared a room with Courts down in Perth, which was good fun and that just made it very easy. A few of the lads had obviously been in the camp before, which made it a bit easier to socialise with whoever they knew as well. It was class having those boys there and because Courts had been involved the most, been through it all and seen it all, it was nice to see that perspective of things when you’ve got someone like me or Dingers, who were fairly new to it. It was also nice to get to meet new people and see new faces.

Q: There has obviously been a change in England head coach since you were on international duty. How grateful are you to Eddie Jones for giving you a chance to play for England?
TF: I’ve got a lot to thank Eddie for. He called me up, believed in me and gave me my chance, which I can’t ever thank him enough for, but he also helped mentally as well. There’s a lot of people in camp who know how Eddie is. He’s obviously a fantastic coach but off the pitch, how he talks to you and what I took away from speaking to him was important. I can’t thank Eddie enough for giving me the chance to play for my country.

Q: Steve Borthwick was appointed as Jones’ successor this week, are you pleased that situation has been resolved?
TF: It’s good that it’s been resolved, and we can start preparing for the World Cup as soon as possible. It’s exciting to have a new character who’s going to be different. I’ll just focus on doing what I can for Saints and hopefully I can get picked that way.

Q: Saints’ players have got the week off this week, how have you been spending that and what have you got planned for Christmas?
TF: I went to Paris with the missus on Monday and we flew back on Wednesday night. We’re then off to my parents in Norfolk until Christmas Eve and then back down with my girlfriend’s parents on Christmas Day, then back up to my parents on Boxing Day, so we’re nicely shared!

Q: It’s then Harlequins at home on New Year’s Day, how much are you looking forward to that game?
TF: I love playing Quins. In terms of attack, they put out as many surprises as we do, they’re physical as well and they’ll definitely bring it to us. But we’re at home and we obviously had a good win against them the last time they came to us. Hopefully, we can replicate that. Winning obviously would give us a lot of momentum – it’s a different competition now, away from the European stuff, and we can focus back on the Premiership. If we can get off to a flying start to this year, that would put us in good stead for the rest of the season.