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'I'm about 92, 93kgs... I don't like feeling too heavy when I'm not strong enough to move it quickly'

By Liam Heagney
(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Franklin’s Gardens is an English rugby beauty spot, one of those architecturally charming places where every player should always aspire to play. Last Sunday, though, it became a ghoulish graveyard for Fraser Dingwall and his luckless Northampton colleagues. 

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There they were, fully deserving of their seven-point lead against Gallagher Premiership leaders Bristol coming down the finishing straight only for it all to end up horribly going wrong and they instead trooped off devastated and beaten by seven. 

It made for car crash television if you were a Saints fan. The clock read 74:37 when Andy Uren whipped out an immaculate, long-ranging pass from near the goalposts for Luke Morahan to scoot in at the corner for the converted leveller. Then, with the clock having only advanced to 76:23, there was that man Uren again being an absolute pain, diving in under the posts after Bristol has unstoppably countered with the ball that spilt loose on the floor from the restart kick chase.

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Ex-Wales maverick back-rower Andy Powell guests on RugbyPass All Access

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Ex-Wales maverick back-rower Andy Powell guests on RugbyPass All Access

A nightmare had unfolded in the space of just 106 agonising seconds, leaving Northampton six points off the fourth and final playoff spot held by Sale rather than that gap being cut to half that margin. All the more brutal was that it was Bristol who had done the damage, re-opening the aching December 4 wound that was the Bears stealing Ashton Gate victory against the Saints with a clock-in-the-red Sam Bedlow penalty.  

“It’s cruel,” shrugged Dingwall, taking the time to chat to RugbyPass in the run-up to this Saturday’s Northampton trip to Worcester where the prospective England midfielder will be on the bench. “In fairness to Bristol, they always seem to steal a lot of games at the death so maybe they have got on a good habit of it and it isn’t purely down to us, maybe they have just got luck on their side.

“Yeah, it was a tough one and at the end of the game it was very hard to take because I felt like we had fought back so well and had controlled it… with high performance sport the outcome is the key thing and we didn’t win. That does weigh on the mind but there were so many positives in the game and there was a two, three-minute period of us unfortunately compounding a few errors.

“I couldn’t really believe it to be honest when they were suddenly seven points up and it all happened in the space of a minute and a half. There wasn’t a huge amount we did get wrong and it was horrible, a pretty horrible feeling. You feel pretty empty.”

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Thankfully, Saints boss Chris Boyd didn’t bag them for the self-destruction. “He would be just incredibly frustrated and almost in disbelief, which is pretty much reflected in the players. He is not someone who is going to get angry. He is very much the same as the players. He would just be incredibly frustrated that another one of those results had slipped away from us this season.”

It has been the story of Northampton’s campaign – plenty of encouraging endeavour interspersed with hard-luck stories, a carry-over from their post-lockdown run in the resumed 2019/20 season where they weekly seemed to find a new way of losing. A bit of consistency, though, and it wouldn’t take long for them to be more constantly in the conversation about who will be this season’s semi-finalists next June.

“The mood is good,” reported Dingwall despite the anguish of seeing some Northampton victories snatched away at the death. “We are showing that when we get things right and perform how we know we can, we can turn over any side and that has shown in our results. Wins against top teams like Exeter and Sale. We just need to get to the point that when we beat a team like Sale that we then beat Bristol the week after and become consistent against top teams.”

Enough of the Northampton collective, though: How is Dingwall himself trucking along in these extraordinary times? He was involved in two October England training camps and was also chosen in the squad for the Barbarians match. 

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We all know what sadly happened to that aborted fixture and it has since been challenging for the centre to build momentum back with his club, cancelled matches, illness and hectic competition for starting slots limiting him to five starts at No13 and five more appearances so far as a sub in a season where only 13 of Northampton’s 18 scheduled Premiership and Champions Cup games up to now have taken place.

“I feel like I’m going reasonably well,” he reported. “It’s nice to be back in the team after I was out for a couple of weeks. It’s always tough to get back in because every other week there seems to be a game called off because of Covid cases so there isn’t the rotation normally demanded of the players. I’ve just found a good chance to get my head down and work quite hard off the pitch.”

Set to turn 22 on April 7, last week was the 46th appearance in three seasons for Dingwall at Northampton and while it is generally said that the No13 position is the hardest on the pitch to defend in, he is getting more and more acquainted with the demands of this role as time goes by.

“Experience always helps,” he explained. “It is very different week to week because you constantly come up against different styles of play and different threats. I don’t think it necessarily gets easier, you just start to recognise things occasionally a bit quicker just through your preparation more than anything. 

“It’s constantly just trying to take things from different teams. You see impressive things in some teams, especially around that channel, how they manipulate attackers and turn people back inside when they have got a massive overlap or they are coming through the middle and you’re able to push them to the edge. 

‘It’s constantly watching rugby and taking things from the top teams. Intercepts are a good one, there has been a good few in the Six Nations. Any time you see an intercept, that is a pretty good example of someone who is alive to the attackers and ended up stealing their ball.”

All the while Dingwall is keen to pack a more powerful punch in the Northampton midfield. He’s not the most physically daunting player you will find. No-one will ever be nicknaming him The Eclipse for his size, that’s for sure. But he has used the past year to hone his technique and ensure he is steadily at what he feels is his best fighting weight.

“I feel I’m okay at the moment. Around the first Covid lockdown I managed to get in a really good conditioning block and ticked off a few physical goals that I had been wanting to ever since I had started at the club.

“It’s the modern way of the game that people come in different shapes and sizes. I’m not one of the biggest centres so I have to make up for it with intent and mental attitude towards the contact area and probably technique so I do a lot of work because I’m not necessarily blessed with huge amounts of size and strength. 

“I’m about 92, 93kgs. It’s pretty steady for the whole of this season, which is quite nice. I’m someone who loses weight quite quickly and it’s about having it pretty steady. That is probably a pretty good weight for me. The only thing I want to do now is to continually add more strength and power. I don’t like feeling too heavy when I’m not strong enough to move it quickly and so I’m pretty happy with the weight I am at the moment.”

On-the-money tackle technique is all the more imperative these days in a climate where red cards for getting the contact wrong are two a penny. “It’s one of those things where the refs are trying to force the change around that contact area to the head and that is rightly so because it is a key part to the game and some of that can definitely be made a lot safer,” continued Dingwall.

“It is going to have an immediate effect of a lot of red cards but soon there will be a forcible change and people will start to change their habits and techniques and that is probably the best thing about it. It is going to put a large emphasis on good tackle technique which on the whole makes it safer for the tackler as well as the person who is being tackled.”

The Cambridge-born Dingwall was 14 when he first became attached to Northampton. He began representative rugby playing for Scotland at U16s and U18s before reverting to England, captaining them at the 2019 Junior World Championship and for that year’s Six Nations. 

National allegiance is a huge source of pride for Saints. When Boyd announced his team to play Sale the other week, the club took to Twitter with a tweet showing 15 England flags and a dozen asterisk denoting how twelve of the XV had come through the Northampton academy, Dingwall among them.  

It’s a homegrown success he is rather chuffed with. “That is just a credit to the academy system that I and several others have come through and from first-hand experience, I can tell you that is exceptional,” he said.

“It’s due to time and attention, and the attitude of Chris Boyd since he has come in, he has put a lot into young English guys, a big focus on developing homegrown players, and that has been massive for the opportunity of myself and others. We are very thankful for him as other coaches would look to sign from abroad. 

“We have got very good facilities here, everything is in one place and it’s a pretty tight-knit club. You’re able to work closely with your coaches and get quite honest feedback. It just leads to a good circle of getting better and finding new things to get better at. It’s a constant churn in terms of bringing out good young players.”

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J
Jon 2 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

35 Go to comments
j
john 4 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

15 Go to comments
A
Adrian 6 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

15 Go to comments
T
Trevor 9 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

21 Go to comments
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