Northern | US

England centre Tommy Freeman: 'My mental state wasn’t in the best spot'

By PA
EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND - FEBRUARY 14: Tommy Freeman of England inspects the pitch prior to the Guinness Six Nations 2026 match between Scotland and England at Scottish Gas Murrayfield on February 14, 2026 in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo by Dan Mullan - RFU/The RFU Collection via Getty Images)

England centre Tommy Freeman has revealed that an intervention from his Northampton coaches helped him through a slump following the British and Irish Lions tour.

ADVERTISEMENT

Freeman started all three Tests in the 2-1 series victory over Australia that concluded on August 2 – alongside Maro Itoje and Tom Curry one of only three Englishman to do so – and still felt the effects when the new season began.

While physically he was recharged by the mandatory five-week rest period that followed the tour, Northampton director of rugby Phil Dowson and head coach Sam Vesty spotted that his “mental state wasn’t in the best spot”.

VIDEO

A reduction in training and matches enabled the 24-year-old to negotiate the early part of 2025-26 and he went on to take part in England’s autumn campaign until he was affected by a hamstring niggle.

“I struggled without realising it. I had the five weeks off, body felt good, but my mental state wasn’t in the best spot,” Freeman said.

“When you go on tours and go away for a long time, when you come back it’s almost ‘right, you’re done’.

“I get ill sometimes because of the stress and then all of a sudden it being off you and the relief. It was just a mixture of all that.

ADVERTISEMENT

“Phil and Sam just pulled me to the side and asked if I was all right. I had probably been in denial and was saying ‘I’m fine, I’m fine’, but they pulled me from bits and bobs of training and then a few games, which was really good.

“England as well, picking that up and getting me back into the games in the right way.”

Related

Referencing his post-Australia holiday that included trips to Universal Studios and Disney World in Florida, Freeman continued: “You go on a big Lions tour off the back of 34 games.

“It’s a lot of rugby and then I could probably have managed my time off better and not gone on as many rollercoaster rides and things like that, probably just sat in the sun.

“Without realising it, I think I was tired. My body felt like I was OK to go but I just think mentally it was a bit more of a struggle.

ADVERTISEMENT

“I can’t really explain the feeling, if I’m honest, it was just a mix of up and downs, really. It took an extra two weeks to feel all right.”

Freeman is expected to continue his centre partnership with Northampton team-mate Fraser Dingwall that was given its fourth Test outing in Saturday’s 31-20 defeat by Scotland.

Ireland visit Allianz Stadium in the next assignment of the Guinness Six Nations and Freeman admits his transition from wing, where he has won the bulk of his 24 caps, remains a work in progress.

“There’s loads to learn still,” he said. “With centre, you get to experience loads of different things. What you’ve got to realise is that every game doesn’t look the same. Every centre offers something different.”

Related

ADVERTISEMENT
Play Video
LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Long Reads

Comments on RugbyPass

J
JW 5 hours ago
New report details source of Ardie Savea's All Blacks frustrations

Yeah it’s hard to be critical of Razor but of choices in his first year of the loosies he constantly played Ardie at 8. It would seem that was always the plan and that Hoskins was surplas to requirements (7, with Dalton then Cane, as was fairly happy with but understand the calls to drop Cane for his last test, along with TJ, and 6 was shared around nicely I thought) and he didn’t have the alround game of Ardie to simply overtake him at 8 (and use Ardie elsewhere). Of course he did that exact thing next year, too late for HS. Then last year 7 was fine if though the same problem was brought about by using Ardie (always leaves a component of a back three missing) there so often stopping Dalton from getting opportunities. At 6 Parker just had one or two too many games for me but 8 was shuffled around nicely, even if I don’t know why Lakai was thought to be the key there.

Of course a lot of rotation was brought about by, you guesed it, injury, still. Now to be fair to Razor, in reality we have no idea if he had to manage Ardie this way, based on NZRs desires with his contract (we have seen them move heaven and earth to retain him), and if he benched him often whether that would have caused him to leave or not. Or even that Hoskins would have accepted a jersey unless it was with a single digit on it, and a regular pick, as he had had to work his way back to the team without a big bump in his contract (of loosing AB selection early on) of other people his standing, so he also might have still put his family and therefor more over the jersey.



...

63 Go to comments
Close Panel
Close Panel

Edition & Time Zone

{{current.name}}
Set time zone automatically
{{selectedTimezoneTitle}} (auto)
Choose a different time zone
Close Panel

Editions

Close Panel

Change Time Zone

Close
ADVERTISEMENT