Tommy Freeman has revealed that his brilliant backpass during England’s win over Japan was honed in training – and said he received “a lot of whipping” in the dressing room after the game.
The Northampton wing impressed the crowd at the Allianz Stadium by executing a stunning offload on club-mate George Furbank, who completed the move in Sunday’s 59-14 win, earning praise from skipper Jamie George for being “playful”.
Freeman believes the gamble has paid off, saying, “I actually did a lot of that in training this week! I practiced a little bit and strangely enough I got the opportunity to do it. You’re always trying. If it’s right,” he believes the gamble has paid off. In the right place and at the right time, you support yourself to do it.
“I wouldn’t force myself to run around because it doesn’t always pop out. It was moving and it was running pretty fast, so if I had continued that movement I probably would have fallen.” touch
“Maybe I could have tried to lighten the load some other way, but I thought, ‘Let’s give it a try.’ Luckily, Furbs was able to catch it.
“I’m glad it fell off because otherwise I would have hurt my neck. We get cleared to do our job and get out there. Luckily it fell off.”
Despite criticism from his teammates, Freeman is satisfied with the result. “We’ve got a lot of sticks up in the locker room. They’ll be posted everywhere so it’ll be like, ‘Oh just play cool.’ It’s worked out, I’m happy with it.”
England, who dramatically demolished Japan nine times, showed off their incredible attacking prowess and ended 2024 on a positive note, halting a five-Test losing streak.
However, the more intense part of the Autumn Nations Series has already passed, with New Zealand, Australia and South Africa narrowly winning in London.
“We got a good result and did what we wanted to do the whole campaign,” Freeman said.
“It’s always really positive when everything comes together, but we want to do that against South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and the top four teams.”
Freeman pointed to the narrow margin in the previous game. “We missed it narrowly in that game. If we can put it all together we can be a threatening team.
“We were eight points up against Australia at one point, we were up against New Zealand, we were physical against South Africa and we had some really good glimpses of form.
“And that’s the problem. We had some really good elements, but we switched off some and it cost us. We didn’t move the ball into space enough and looking at that, we missed opportunities.
“There are safe options and riskier options. As a team we have to get up front and seize the opportunities because at this level there is not much to come.”
