{"id":337249,"date":"2025-12-26T22:20:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T22:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/337249\/"},"modified":"2025-12-26T22:20:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T22:20:10","slug":"history-maker-lions-starter-but-wing-out-to-prove-himself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/337249\/","title":{"rendered":"history maker, Lions starter but wing out to prove himself"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brick by brick, much as he did with Lego during his recent injury lay-off, Tommy Freeman built a formidable body of work over the past 12 months. By his own admission, he had not begun the year as a front-runner to start on the wing for the British & Irish Lions on their tour to Australia. But as he crossed for try after try in the Six Nations, becoming the first England player to touch down in every round of the tournament, he became a clear contender.<\/p>\n

His efforts in propelling Northampton Saints to the Champions Cup final strengthened his case and, by the time the Lions arrived in Australia, he had become a firm favourite. Freeman started all three Tests against the Wallabies as the Lions\u2019 series victory crowned a breakthrough season for him. \u201cIt all feels so long ago already, but to have a year like that, to finish the season the way I did, was pretty special,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the game moves on quickly and I don\u2019t think you really look back and enjoy those moments properly until you\u2019ve hung up the boots.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such is the nature of his profession that Freeman now views the achievements of 2025 merely as a building block towards his goals for next year. Indeed, he feels a pressing desire to prove his mettle once more. This is partly due to the hamstring injury he sustained during the autumn internationals, having played in England\u2019s first two victories, over Australia and Fiji, but which then ruled him out for six weeks before his return to action for Northampton against Sale last weekend. And this is where the Lego comes in.<\/p>\n

\"British<\/p>\n

Freeman battles through the rain and Australia\u2019s defence during the third Lions Test in Sydney<\/p>\n

DAVID DAVIES\/PA<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always boring in rehab, you start losing your mind and just want to chuck a ball about, but you\u2019re stuck in the gym and you have to find your own motivation,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m a big Lego fan. I\u2019ve built a Porsche, I\u2019ve got a Land Rover to do and a big TT bike I\u2019ve been bought, and I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll have more at Christmas. It\u2019s a good way to keep me off my phone. So I got through [the injury lay-off] OK, I was back a week earlier than anticipated. I\u2019m just happy to be back and, after a bit of a disjointed start to the season, I feel like I need to prove myself again.\u201d<\/p>\n

A determination, clearly, not to rest on the laurels gained last season, with the Six Nations not too far away. \u201cOnce you\u2019ve gone on one tour, you want to go on another,\u201d he said. \u201cOnce you\u2019ve scored five tries [in the Six Nations], you want to go one further and do it the following year. That\u2019s where my mind is at the moment. I\u2019ve got more to prove and more to give.\u201d<\/p>\n

One area in which Freeman, 24, hopes to develop his game is the versatility that playing at outside centre can bring. He started at No13 for England against Australia before reverting to the wing against Fiji and has continued to work across both positions in training with Northampton. <\/p>\n

\"Tommy<\/p>\n

Freeman started at outside centre against Australia in the autumn and says he\u2019ll keep trying to crack the position<\/p>\n

PAUL HARDING\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I\u2019m trying to work on centre a lot,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have individual skills we do, there\u2019s a high-ball group and a midfield group, and I\u2019m involved in both. If I\u2019m playing centre, I just want to get the training minutes in there. If I\u2019m on the wing, I want to get the training minutes there and do my high-ball stuff. I\u2019m making sure both sets of skills are topped up. I\u2019ll always strive for something more and playing around with centre as well gives me that new challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

England play their first Six Nations match in six weeks, at home against Wales, as they attempt to win the tournament for the first time in six years. Hopes are high after a clean sweep in the autumn, extending their winning sequence to 11 matches \u2014 a streak which started with that last-gasp victory over France, when Freeman\u2019s try sparked a comeback, as he rose high to claim a cross-kick from Fin Smith, his Northampton team-mate. Something clicked for Steve Borthwick\u2019s side after that and Freeman identifies that game as his favourite England match of 2025. \u201cWe went down early, but then went score for score and ground out a win,\u201d he said. \u201cFin went well at No10 and it was a cool day for us Saints lads. That was a pretty special game.\u201d<\/p>\n

His favourite outing in a Northampton shirt this year was the remarkable 37-34 victory in the Champions Cup semi-final against Leinster at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Freeman scored a first-half hat-trick in a brilliant attacking performance to give Saints a win against the odds. \u201cEveryone wrote us off, we went in with nothing to lose,\u201d he said. \u201cTo get a hat-trick and then hold them out at the end, that felt like the final itself to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tommy<\/p>\n

Freeman scoring one of his three first-half tries against Leinster<\/p>\n

DAVID ROGERS\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

Saints were beaten 28-20 in the final by Bordeaux B\u00e8gles and the goal for Freeman this season is to go one better, with club and country. England are aiming to finish one place higher in the Six Nations than their runners-up slot last season, while Northampton have started the season well and go into a top-of-the-table clash away to Bath this weekend just three points behind the league leaders.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey won the league last year and they\u2019ve got a hell of a squad,\u201d Freeman said. \u201cThey\u2019ve got an attacking mindset similar to ours, but we\u2019re a good team as well. We\u2019ll look to move the ball and go down there and get after them. And hopefully next year we can win some trophies, both at Saints and with England as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u25cf Tommy Freeman was speaking at \u201cthe big cinchmas wrap\u201d, where Saints\u2019 players were wrapping presents for fans and raising money for the Northampton Saints Foundation alongside the UK\u2019s leading online used car retailer, cinch<\/p>\n

Bath v Northampton Saints<\/p>\n

Saturday, 5.30pm
TV: TNT Sports <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brick by brick, much as he did with Lego during his recent injury lay-off, Tommy Freeman built a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-337249","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\/337249","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=337249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}