'Perfect 10' - England wing Tommy Freeman delighted for Fin Smith after heroic first start

Fin Smith and Tommy Freeman are long time friends, given their shared history in the green, black and gold of Northampton. The two Saints men collaborated for a stunning second half try to ignite England's comeback, as Freeman rose high on the touch-line to claim Smith's inch-perfect cross-field kick, before the wing muscled his way past Louis Biellie-Biarrey to lift the roof off the Allianz Stadium.

Speaking on how his telepathic connection with Smith, Freeman all but knew the kick was coming to his corner, just by how Smith set himself in England's attacking line.

"Connections are the most important thing in a team. Obviously as as a team from loads of different clubs, then we want to make them the best we can. The likes of me playing with Fin, Ollie (Sleightholme) and Mitch (Alex Mitchell), week in week out makes it that a little bit easier.

"There are cues that I can pick up that probably a lot of lads can’t. I knew he (Smith) was going to hit that cross-field kick. I know the way he moves, the timing he wants off you whereas with Marcus (Smith), it's a bit different. It was nice to have to have him there. I got the message to him, in the phase before. I know he's pulling the strings and he can put the ball on the on the sixpence."

Smith and Freeman's friendship predates the fly half's time at Franklin's Gardens, as prior to tearing it up for the Saints, Smith was leading the back-line for former Premiership club Worcester Warriors. The two first got to acquainted within the England U20s set-up, yet have become tighter than ever in the years which have followed. So much so that Freeman and Smith's partners are equally as close friends, with the two Northampton men often feeling like the third and fourth wheels when they all get together.

"Yeah, I knew of Fin and I’d done a bit of (Under) 20s training with him. He was in the year below me. I’d kind of put an arm round him when he came to Saints as a young lad playing 10, which is not an easy job, especially after Biggs (Dan Biggar). I took a liking to Fin and our friendship has grown since then. Our girlfriends are best friends as well so it’s me and Fin, and the girls just interrupt! He’s a good lad.

"We’ve spent a lot of time together. Us Saints lads all live pretty locally, within 10 minutes of each other and some are walking distance. We are always going over for dinners and things like that, to get out of our own houses and go to see each other. We see each other every day at training but we want to spend more time with each other afterwards as well. Having those connections helps and doing 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."

It was a fine first Test start for Smith, who managed to brush off an early set-back of having his kick charged down by the fearsome French pressure. Freeman was impressed how well the 22-year-old handled the error, and echoed the thoughts of his teammate Ollie Lawrence, in how it takes more than pressure to ruffle the cool-headed playmaker.

"I didn’t have a word. Fin is a guy who is young but has a wise head on him. He backs his gameplan and we all do too. We knew he was going to recover from that and things like that don’t really faze him to be honest."

Expanding on from Smith, the England team as a whole exhibited an immense mental fortitude, to overcome the odds for the dramatic win at Twickenham. The odds seemed stacked against Steve Borthwick's side, as France wing Louis Bielle-Biarrey cantered across the whitewash for a 75th minute stadium silencer. However, Maro Itoje led the response as England battled back down the pitch, before Elliot Daly scorched clear of the defensive line to send the crowd back into a fever-pitched frenzy, before Smith's sharpshooting secured the memorable win.

"We have been through enough of them to learn from them! We just want a clear mindset every time we go into a scenario. We do a lot of scenario training as well. We create different scenarios in the training ground, so we're ready for it. It was just a matter of get getting the ball and kicking it off as best as we can. We went down and they scored, it was all about getting the ball back as quickly as possible and giving ourselves another shout."

"We wanted to score at each phase, so we had the maul first and we wanted to score off that, then it was a case of, “if we don’t score, where do we go to next?”. We can go to the short side which is the easiest place to score if they don’t mark it, then outside of that we have our set move.

"It was all about doing our jobs within that role and if everyone did their job well it would create something good. The 10 will call it, so Fin called it and everyone was pretty decisive when it was called. There wasn’t any hesitation and we got it done."

There were plenty of stark similarities for England fans to the recent Autumn Nations defeats, who thought they were heading for another cruel dose of Test match deja vu. However, unlike the last minute losses to New Zealand and Australia from this past November, England were able to tick the score-board over once more, to break the streak of gut-punching defeats to top tier opponents.

"I wouldn't say anything was too different." Freeman expressed. "We were up against New Zealand, Australia and and those tight games and we wanted to do the exact same thing we did today. Sometimes it just doesn't happen. We wanted to create an environment for the fans. We needed it. We were due it, so it was good to get over the line."

"When they got that last try and it was it was pretty gutting. I thought, ‘five minutes, we're gonna have one last shot here and and we’ve got make it count’. Luckily Daly was in the right spot to finish it. It was a bit of relief, but it's something we know we've we've got in us and it was only a matter of time and hopefully we can kick on from now."

Looking towards the incoming matches for the 2025 Six Nations, and after the current fallow week, England take on Scotland at the Allianz for the latest battle over the Calcutta Cup. Then Italy and Wales are set to follow suit, with Freeman hoping to clean up the rest of the clashes, to elevate England's title chances. However, the England team all know that its far easier said than done, with all of the upcoming opponents presenting their own unique threats.

"Well, every time you win a game, it puts you a bit further forward for the next game. We will take it game by game. We’ve got Scotland next, then Italy and Wales. Scotland can pose some threats so we won’t be looking for all the stars and glory now, we’ll just take it game by game."

"It (Allianz Stadium) was loud to be fair that's the best I've ever heard it. It was awesome to get the victory, and it maybe a long time coming. But we know we're not far out and I’m glad we got the victory today.