{"id":321152,"date":"2025-12-17T15:45:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T15:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/321152\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T15:45:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T15:45:09","slug":"i-probably-handled-it-pretty-badly-at-the-start-i-played-the-victim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/321152\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I probably handled it pretty badly at the start. I played the victim’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

England<\/a> and Leicester<\/a> Tigers full-back Freddie Steward<\/a> has credited Michael Cheika with helping rebuild his confidence after \u201ceasily the toughest season, or two seasons\u201d of his career, before a standout series against Argentina<\/a> in July.<\/p>\n

Two years ago, Steward would have been one of the first names on the team sheet for England. But Steve Borthwick\u2019s ambition to evolve England\u2019s style after the 2023 World Cup saw the 25-year-old marginalised, with George Furbank<\/a> returning to the England fold and Marcus Smith<\/a> being fashioned into a full-back.<\/p>\n

This forced Steward to develop his game, and, after only making one appearance in the Six Nations<\/a> this year, he returned to England\u2019s starting XV during the summer \u2013 admittedly aided by British and Irish Lions<\/a> call-ups and injuries \u2013 where he was able to showcase the growth in his attacking game with slicker distribution and more potent carrying as England won the series with the Pumas<\/a> 2-0.<\/p>\n

This development would never have happened, he said as a guest on The Rugby Pod<\/a> recently, had he not had the \u201chorrible\u201d feeling of having the England No.15 jersey taken away from him. Though he said he \u201cplayed a bit of the victim,\u201d Steward took the advice he was given from Borthwick on board and went back to work on his game, helped by Cheika, who was at the helm at Welford Road last season.<\/p>\n

Steward\u2019s place in an England matchday squad is still not as secure as it once was, and he has conceded that he may be pigeonholed as a high-ball specialist for the rest of his career. However, when reflecting on the past two years, he feels he is \u201csat here better because that happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fixture<\/p>\n

Gallagher Premiership<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Leicester <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Gloucester <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cEasily the toughest season, or two seasons, I\u2019ve had in my career,\u201d Steward said when reflecting on losing his place in the England team.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, international rugby and playing for England means the world to me, so when you get that taken away, it\u2019s horrible. You live it, it\u2019s all everyone wants to speak about, and it\u2019s quite hard to get away from. I probably handled it pretty badly at the start \u2014 I played a bit of the victim \u2014 but you start to appreciate it more when it gets taken away from you.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was never any doubt that I was going to respond in a way that was going to make me better. I\u2019m comfortably able to say I\u2019m sat here better because that happened, and I\u2019d probably be worse had I kept the shirt the whole time. You need stuff like that to give you that kick.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeicester has been a great spot, particularly with Cheik [Michael Cheika] there last season. He\u2019s such a good coach. I learned so much from him, and he basically built my confidence back up because it was near zero. He was great for that, and Hewey [Peter Hewat] as attack coach as well. I just had to enjoy it when it was s**t, and it\u2019s made the last season even more special, having the opportunity to wear the shirt again and be out there with England.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was never any doubt that the part of my game that needed to improve was the attacking side. Steve said to me, \u2018Kick returns are going to be a massive focus. I want you to go away and make me meet every time you get the ball \u2014 beat defenders, bringing that ball back.\u2019 That\u2019s been a massive focus for me over the last couple of seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been working really hard on that, going hard in the gym, trying to get these tiny wins with speed and acceleration, and trying to be a threat with ball in hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cI probably got the balance wrong at the start because I neglected the high ball stuff and suffered for a bit, but you\u2019ve got to find a balance between remembering what got you where you are \u2014 your point of difference \u2014 and what you can add.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get pigeonholed. Until the day I retire, all they want to talk about is the high ball and the aerial stuff, but I want to be known for something else and be slightly more rounded than that label suggests.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England and Leicester Tigers full-back Freddie Steward has credited Michael Cheika with helping rebuild his confidence after \u201ceasily…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-321152","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}