The quartet of smiling faces in a celebratory photo after England’s much-needed win over France told the story: Alex Mitchell, Fin Smith, Tommy Freeman and Ollie Sleightholme – four backs from one club, Northampton, together for their country.
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Read MoreThere are ups and downs to this tale of successful Saints, as we’ll see, and England head coach Steve Borthwick has never explicitly stated a policy of picking from one club – although he recently cited Leinster’s amazing cohesion for Ireland, and how Saracens’ serial winners at club level helped England to the 2019 World Cup final, and England leant on the successful Leicester Tigers and Wasps teams of the 2000s: “Guys who were just driven to win.”
England’s winning try against the French two weeks ago was finished on the wraparound by Saracens’ Elliot Daly, but it was a move very familiar to Northampton supporters, and called by Smith as the fly-half. The earlier try made by Smith’s lofted cross-kick to Freeman could conceivably have been brought off by Harlequins’ Marcus Smith, but the Northampton pair have the empathy of around 60 club matches together.
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As Freeman said afterwards: “I knew he was going to hit that cross-field kick, I know the way he moves, the timing he wants off you, whereas with Marcus it’s a bit different.
Fin Smith agreed, saying: “I know Tommy’s strength is largely off my shoulder or on the touchline. I know which areas he and Sleightholme are going to pop up in. When you haven’t played with someone so much it’s, ‘Is he going to come on my inside, deep behind me, or flat on my shoulder’?
Past England squads suffered from cliques of club players hanging around together, worsening not improving the camaraderie. Borthwick has no rule on mixing players up when they are rooming at the England team hotel.
Still, Freeman is happy joking about how his Northampton “bromance” with best pal Smith gets on the nerves of their girlfriends, and it is a topic of affectionate mickey-taking among teammates.
Fin Smith and Tommy Freeman have a connection on and off the field (Photo: Getty)“We see each other every day at training but we want to spend more time with each other afterwards as well. We are always going over for dinners, and those things we do together off the pitch like our recovery at Virgin Active and all the health clubs. It’s all pretty local at Northampton.”
A club concentration in a national team is not uncommon. Sixteen of the Ireland 23 who beat England in the first round of this Six Nations were from Leinster. There were nine Toulouse players in the France 23 at Twickenham. Two natural club-country cores are Scotland/Glasgow Warriors and Italy/Benetton, while New Zealand’s autumn series team was spread between their Super Rugby sides, Australia’s 15 had six starters from the Waratahs, and it was the same for South Africa with the Sharks.
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Read MoreAfterwards, Dowson said: “These lads, when they come through the academy or we sign them, we talk about their ambitions, and one of those is to play international rugby.
And can they bring the cohesion of eight weeks with England back to the club?
But it’s not all upside. Northampton are down in eighth place in the Premiership, and Dowson is unhappy they were “shorn of players” when they lost away to Bristol Bears in October and Harlequins in January at the same time as England had training camps.
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Read MoreIt’s not as if the Northampton cohort all arrived at the same time in the same place, like some kind of rugby Midwich Cuckoos. The England contingent are aged from 22 (Smith) to 28 (Furbank), and some had development time elsewhere – Freeman at Leicester, Mitchell at Sale Sharks, Smith and Hendy at Worcester Warriors – while Coles, Dingwall, Furbank, Henry Pollock and Sleightholme have only ever played for the club.
Following the theory through, you wonder if Northampton head coach Sam Vesty could be the next cab arriving on the England rank, as he has already coached the A team temporarily. But that’s a question for another day.
England squad to face Scotland
Forwards:
Fin Baxter (Harlequins)
Ollie Chessum (Leicester Tigers)
Alex Coles (Northampton Saints)
Luke Cowan-Dickie (Sale Sharks)
Chandler Cunningham-South (Harlequins)
Ben Curry (Sale Sharks)
Tom Curry (Sale Sharks)
Theo Dan (Saracens)
Alex Dombrandt (Harlequins)
Ben Earl (Saracens)
Ellis Genge (Bristol Bears)
Jamie George (Saracens)
Joe Heyes (Leicester Tigers)
Ted Hill (Bath Rugby)
Maro Itoje (Saracens)
George Martin (Leicester Tigers)
Asher Opoku-Fordjour (Sale Sharks)
Henry Pollock (Northampton Saints)
Bevan Rodd (Sale Sharks)
Will Stuart (Bath Rugby)
Tom Willis (Saracens)
Backs:
Oscar Beard (Harlequins)
Elliot Daly (Saracens)
Fraser Dingwall (Northampton Saints)
George Ford (Sale Sharks)
Tommy Freeman (Northampton Saints)
Ollie Lawrence (Bath Rugby)
Alex Mitchell (Northampton Saints)
Harry Randall (Bristol Bears)
Tom Roebuck (Sale Sharks)
Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs)
Ollie Sleightholme (Northampton Saints)
Fin Smith (Northampton Saints)
Marcus Smith (Harlequins)
Ben Spencer (Bath Rugby)
Freddie Steward (Leicester Tigers)
England A squad to face Ireland A
Forwards:
Alfie Barbeary (Bath Rugby)
Phil Brantingham (Saracens)
Richard Capstick (Exeter Chiefs)
Greg Fisilau (Exeter Chiefs)
Mackenzie Graham (Bath Rugby)
Luke Green (Northampton Saints)
Tarek Haffar (Northampton Saints)
Jack Kenningham (Harlequins)
George Kloska (Bristol Bears)
Curtis Langdon (Northampton Saints)
Tom Lockett (Northampton Saints)
Gabriel Oghre (Bristol Bears)
Tom Pearson (Northampton Saints)
Guy Pepper (Bath Rugby)
Hugh Tizard (Saracens)
Backs:
Charlie Atkinson (Gloucester Rugby)
Will Butt (Bath Rugby)
Joe Carpenter (Sale Sharks)
Tobias Elliott (Saracens)
Ollie Hassell-Collins (Leicester Tigers)
George Hendy (Northampton Saints)
Josh Hodge (Exeter Chiefs)
Max Ojomoh (Bath Rugby)
Billy Pasco (Northampton Saints)
Will Porter (Harlequins)
Jamie Shillcock (Leicester Tigers)
Jack van Poortvliet (Leicester Tigers)
Rafe Witheat (Northampton Saints)
Joseph Woodward (Leicester Tigers)
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