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What Northampton make of headache Tommy Freeman is causing England

By PA
Tommy Freeman (centre) celebrates after a Northampton try versus Sale was scored by James Ramm (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Northampton director of rugby Phil Dowson has said he is looking forward to seeing how England utilise Tommy Freeman during the autumn internationals after his starring role in Saints’ thumping 47-17 victory over Sale.

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Freeman played the first four matches of Northampton’s season on the wings but started at outside centre against Sale, who saw the match rapidly get away from them after youngster Alex Wills was sent to the sin bin in the first half.

It was Freeman’s last Gallagher Premiership match before reporting for international duty with England, whose coach Steve Borthwick seemingly has a nice problem over where to play him. Dowson said of the 23-year-old: “He is obviously adept at all those positions – full-back, wing, 13 today – and the more you get him on the ball the better. He got some space today and he showed what a capable player he is.

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“Steve has got some great decisions to make in that space – Henry Slade is one of the best in the league and he is back fit, so he has got some decisions to make in terms of how he balances that up. I would be surprised if he [Freeman] was not in the mix somewhere and where he fits and how he fits and how they get him in the game is interesting.”

Northampton, who were looking to bounce back from their derby defeat to Leicester, scored early through Freeman and George Furbank before Luke Cowan-Dickie pulled a try back for Sale. However, three tries in six minutes followed Wills’ yellow card as Ollie Sleightholme (two) and Tom James extended Saints’ advantage.

George Hendy’s intercept score made it 40-10 at half-time and after Joe Carpenter pulled one back after the break, James Ramm rounded the night off for Northampton as they made it 18 successive home wins at Franklin’s Gardens.

Dowson added: “In the derby [at Leicester], we didn’t convert a lot of our opportunities and today, via the bounce of the ball and a stroke of luck, we converted pretty much everything.”

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Sale director of rugby Alex Sanderson accepted his share of the responsibility for the Sharks performance. He said: “They were sharp and aggressive and we played too loose against an angry side, if I’m honest, and that is down to the preparation.

“I have said I’m taking that off the boys – as coaches we probably didn’t focus on the right things in the week and that looseness showed in the turnover tries a lack of physicality in defence in some of those opening sets.

“We found ourselves 30 points down at half-time and that climb is too steep and too long against a decent team. Our execution in attack was as poor as it has been, and it has been good so that was the exception over the last three weeks, at least.

“It is very difficult to put a finger on it without having looked at the tape, but I think the mentality drives your behaviours and I think I got that wrong this week.”

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j
johnz 3 hours ago
Cautious Robertson 'has to produce wins more than next generation players'

That was an awfully long winded article to conclude that Robertson is more concerned with his win / loss ratio than he is with building a new empire. The simple translation would be; he's developed a fear of losing.


Unfortunately to achieve anything great in life, you've got to be prepared to take a few risks and be comfortable with the possibility you might fail. Gone are the days the ABs can turn up with any old 15 and expect to win 80% of their matches. Playing it safe is not going to win us any WC's given the quality of the other top 4 or 5 nations we are up against.


As the saying goes, you generally get what you focus on in life. If you focus on not losing, unfortunately that's what you tend to attract.


The problem for Razor is that relying on the old guard could be a risk in itself. Both Cane and particularly Perenara have been heavily involved in the current win / loss ratio. Should the trip north not produce the desired results, it become more difficult to explain his approach.


It would be easier to claim progress and paint a bright picture for the future if losses came about with new talent being exposed to the cauldron of northern test rugby.


Besides, as fine a servant as Cane has been; it's difficult to escape the fact he is heavily tied to the worst period of modern AB rugby.


When we voted with our keyboards for change, that's exactly what we wanted. Too many of the current leadership group have become a bit to used to losing.


I genuinely don't know if holding on to the same leadership group for as long as possible to impart their knowledge onto the next generation is the radical change of direction fans were demanding.


I'd prefer they would invite McCaw to tour north and share some knowledge. There's a bloke who knows something about turning a losing culture into a winning one.


Fresh players bring less baggage. We've seen that clearly with the likes of Sititi, Roigard & others, who haven't yet learnt how to gaze into the void when things are going wrong.


Perhaps it's our fault as fans. Razor will be only too aware how quickly the public can turn if things go badly having watched Foster's show. Perhaps it's NZR HQ, who sell the ABs brand to any bidder with some cash to spare - promising wins, wins and more wins.


Certainly the NZR financial model which is almost entirely based on flogging the ABs eternal winning brand probably can't afford a period of rebuilding.


Whatever the cause of Razor's fear, the real fear is that the short sighted thinking will come bake to haunt us.


SA are busy building two squads of test ready players, while Razor prefers to shun young talent in favour of soon to retire servants who are past their best.

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