It needs to be said that a 38-10 victory over a broken Ulster at Welford Road in the Champions Cup was very different to facing all of Ireland in Dublin if Steward reclaims the England No 15 jersey for the start of the tournament in three weeks’ time.
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Read MoreMaybe we should ask not what Steward can do for his country and ask instead what his country can do for him.
“Certainly not by us,” said Michael Cheika, when the Tigers’ head coach was asked post-match if Steward is unfairly pigeon-holed as a high-ball specialist – and the club’s captain Julian Montoya, sitting alongside, frowned and shook his head at the suggestion, too.
“That does not mean unbelievable, because that’s the quality he has as a player – I see it, so I expect that from him, and he expects it of himself. You see that in the way he carries the ball back and the decisions he makes.
Steward had “100th appearance” stitched on the breast of his blue Leicester jersey, and when you note he has 35 caps for England, too, at the age of 24, it shows how much he has packed into a still developing career.
But a red card against Ireland in Dublin two years ago, although it was subsequently overturned, was the start of a rockier period, in which he lost his automatic place at the 2023 World Cup, with Harlequins’ Marcus Smith and Northampton Saints’s George Furbank offering England a different, more fluid way of running and linking – the hybrid No 10 and 15 approach used, for instance, by New Zealand with Beauden Barrett and Damian McKenzie.
Player of the Match Freddie Steward speaks after victory for @LeicesterTigers
"I love this club, you know, it's home for me." #InvestecChampionsCup pic.twitter.com/JsIdAaHwIP
England head coach Steve Borthwick laid out to Steward in a meeting last month where he needed to improve, after just one autumn start against South Africa.
Now Furbank is likely to miss at least the first two Six Nations matches with a broken arm, while the prospect of Smith as the last line of defence away to Ireland seems to force the “sheesh” of a doubting intake of breath between the gritted teeth of every pundit.
Ulster, who were depleted in the backs even before full-back Ethan McIlory jarred a knee horribly in the first half, gave Steward three high balls he dealt with typically imperiously, with a safe catch and turn of his body on landing to present his side with clean possession.
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Read MoreIn attack it took Leicester too long, by their own admission, to find proper cohesion, but when it arrived, the fly-half Handre Pollard and friends used Steward from deep-lying positions to generate the momentum he needs in his running and sidestepping.
A handling fumble for a kind of self-nutmeg, and a clearing kick out on the full, were brief glitches by Steward. And Ulster were unable to drag him side to side in the backfield in the way Ireland surely will.
His own performance was the opposite, with 101 metres made from 19 carries, and he was Premier Sports’ man of the match.
And on his greater attacking range of late, Steward said: “I always want to push myself – there is a lot of work that still needs to be done. But I’m really enjoying it at the minute.”
In between, Leicester complete their Champions Cup pool with a trip to the holders Toulouse, and Tigers must decide whether to chase a possible home draw in the knockouts with an underdog upset, or settle for third place.
“We’ll give them a go,” Steward said, with another smile acknowledging both the upward step and his own rediscovered pep.
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