WE’RE FREDDIE TO TURN PAGE WITH THE FANS
FREDDIE STEWARD is desperate for Twickenham fans to feel the noise after his England side were booed off last time at HQ.
Steward was part of an England team who were beaten 30-22 by Fiji in a World Cup warm-up when a two-thirds full ground vented their frustrations at the side in August.
The full-back was also in teams that were catcalled at the end of Eddie Jones’ reign in 2022 following defeats by Argentina and South Africa.
Steward saw the impact stringing a few decent results together can have on fans when England reached the knockout stages of France 2023 and supporters got behind them.
And the Leicester man wants a repeat of that backing in Saturday’s clash with Wales, their first home game since the Fiji shambles.
Steward, 23, said: “When you play for England you are expected to win, and when you don’t win, understandably you don’t have the fans on your side – and there was a bit of that in the warm-ups. During the World Cup, when we got to the semi-final, it felt like that is what it can be like.
“As players we want that all the time, but we have to put the performances on the field to earn that.
“They are the heartbeat of what we do.
“We want Twickenham to erupt, and we want it to be a place we want to go and play in front of our fans and represent them.
“We are on the pitch, and we are playing the rugby, but we are all striving to achieve the same goal here. Us being back at home is also synonymous with us being a new group.
“This is essentially a fresh start.
“We have had our World Cup and we are on the start of a new cycle with fresh faces, new coaches and this is our chance to draw a line in the sand.”