Freeman celebrates England call as Saints run riot
Tommy Freeman capped a memorable week with two of Northampton’s 10 tries as they trounced woeful Worcester to leap into second place in the Premiership.
The 20-year-old full-back, who revealed that bulking up by eating lots of potatoes helped him receive an unexpected England call-up, demonstrated just why Eddie Jones has become a big admirer.
Freeman will be able to travel to Jersey on Monday for the training camp in preparation for the Twickenham Test campaign with a real spring in his step on the back of this display and his team’s fourth win from their five opening games.
Freeman and Courtnall Skosan, the South Africa wing who completed a memorable hat-trick, received special praise from director of rugby Chris Boyd.
“Tommy has had a very good week and this has made it even better,” Boyd said. “He’s a lad who deserves these rewards because he works very hard in training and he has so much talent. He was excellent again here and took his tries well.
“Courtnall was at the Lions in South Africa when I was there and he was always consistently good for them. He is a very good rugby player and he will thrive in England.
“We have been pretty good in our games for the majority of the time but also there has been a little bit of rubbish. There is still a little bit of rubbish to get rid of but tonight we were very clinical.”
It was a one-sided contest from the start with Saints amassing their bonus point and five tries before half an hour. They routed a visiting outfit who have now conceded 156 points in their past three games.
It started badly and gradually got worse for Worcester, with wing Duhan van der Merwe shown a yellow card for a dangerous clear-out of a ruck, lifting hooker Josh Matavesi above the horizontal and dropping him on to his back.
Wales fly-half Dan Biggar, who
finished the game limping, darted over the line virtually unchallenged for the opener. The lead was shortlived as scrum-half Will Chudley charged down an attempted clearance and ran through.
Saints, however, took command as No8 Teimana Harrison surged
forward from the back of a scrum, and the ball was fed along the line for scrum-half Alex Mitchell to surge across the line.
Young fly-half Fin Smith kicked a Worcester penalty but Saints only had eyes for more tries, and when lock Api Ratuniyarawa rampaged on
to a short pass out there was little way Worcester could deny the Fijian powerhouse as he bull-dozed his way across. Skosan celebrated the bonus-point try as Freeman kicked the ball ahead rather than try to gather it and Skosan caught it and raced over. Moments late Rory
Hutchinson intercepted Worcester prop Rory Sutherland’s pass and raced 75 yards for another try.
Courtney Lawes gave England head coach Jones a few worries when he twisted his left knee in a heavy tackle and needed treatment and strapping before being able to carry on. The sight of the 32-yearold 87-capped forward shrugging off the blow and going on to produce another influential and physical performance for his club will have pleased Jones.
Skosan’s second, and Saints’ sixth, was the best of the evening. The ball was moved swiftly along the line to the left wing, and Skosan acrobatically grounded the ball a split second before being tackled into touch.
Freeman celebrated his England call-up with a fine try, supporting Fraser Dingwall as the centre burst through and offloaded well to his team-mate to complete the attack.
Skosan raced over in the left corner for his third try to show Saints clearly have unearthed a real South African diamond.
Mitchell raced over for his second, and Freeman completed the rout in the final minute. The fullback reached across the line to put the seal on a fine personal display.
Jonathan Thomas, the Worcester head coach, groaned: “We have gifted them five or six tries. It is a group which is not fractured off the field as they work and train hard, but they are struggling on it. Under pressure it is about 15 players playing as one.”