“The greatest moment in the life of Fraser Dingwall!” The commentary which accompanied England’s second half try against Wales, perfectly captured the emotion felt by the Northampton Saints centre. A pivotal score which swung the momentum of the match, Dingwall dived over in the corner to score his first England try on nothing less than his Twickenham debut.
After beginning his test match career out in Rome, Dingwall started alongside Henry Slade as England achieved a narrow 27-24 win at the Stadio Olimpico. After a strong first impression, the Saints man followed this up in his performance against Wales, and contributed a key score in the 16-14 win last Saturday. Dingwall spoke in the post-match mix zone at Twickenham, and expressed the incredible feeling of getting on the score-board for England.
“I just managed to put myself on the edge. I kept Elliot inside me knowing the ball would end up with me and I could hopefully get the score. It’s all bit of a blur but the emotions that ran through after were crazy to be honest, everything came out of me.
“Essentially the forwards were battering the door down and created space for us so we as backs just had to pick it off.”
“It’s unbelievable. These whole couple of weeks have been unbelievable. To get the win as a group and to score as well has been a whirlwind.
“Loads of family here. Unfortunately I haven’t seen them yet so I’m going to rush back out after this and see them. It’s been quite a couple of weeks for them as well and they’re exhausted too with all the emotions running through. They weren’t sat in the corner where I scored, they were on the other sides.”
Despite the try from ‘Dingers’ being a pivotal moment in the match, England’s win was secured by the boot of George Ford. With just 10 minutes to go, England trailed by one point when Wales’ wing Mason Grady was sent to the sin bin for a deliberate knock-on. The following penalty saw Ford send the ball sailing through the posts, with England able to hold out for the win in the closing minutes at Twickenham. Speaking on how the Sale man stepped up to the mark once again, Dingwall said;
“The whole game he was putting us in the right areas, which is something he’s so good at. When you’ve got someone with such experience and knows how to manage those games, it’s excellent.
“Alongside that he attacked and moved the ball to space really nicely. That’s something that we as a group we want to do. It helps that at critical times he is able to put the ball in the right areas of the pitch.”
“This win will give us a massive boost because it shows that if we put on to the pitch what we want, then we can beat teams.
“In the first half we didn’t get outcomes but we stuck at it, so we can go into each game with that intent to stick at what we want to do, we’ll be OK.”
As Dingwall relishes in the glory of the opening two weekends, he is aware that he needs to keep running out strong performances if he wants to experience more of the same jubilation. There is soon set to be an increase of competition for the England centre spots, as the likes of Manu Tuilagi and Ollie Lawrence progress along their returns from injury. Dingwall understands how the England midfield is about to get a bit more clustered, yet welcomes the challenge as England gear up for the rest of the Six Nations.
“I’m loving it. I’m under no illusions that it’s a tough jump to make and I want to keep growing my game. I’ve got a taste of it and I just want more. I’m loving being a part of this group and it feels like we are building towards something special.
“There’s so much competition within the squad…whether or not I’m in the group I’ll always try to learn from other people and keep growing.”
Dingwall rounded off the post-match chat, by looking at the win over Wales from an analytical perspective. The centre was delighted to obtain the victory, yet it was clear that it was not without any difficulties, for England’s first home match of the new Rugby World Cup cycle. The Northampton man put a lot of attention on ‘momentum’, and accredited the England fans who packed Twickenham to the rafters for the tide-turning shift.
“We actually did a lot right in the first 10 minutes and then momentum swing against us and didn’t really get anything. We know that in the second half if we got a few things right it would swing back.
“You saw that we stuck at how we wanted to play and then the rewards started to come our way and we were able to turn that into points. It was a really good game in terms of us putting on the field what we wanted.”
“At half-time we just reiterated how we wanted to go and play the game. We put on the pitch what we wanted, we just didn’t get the outcomes and that’s what frustrated us. We had to tidy up a few things around our launch and then create more contests in the air with our kick battle.
“As soon as we started to get those things on the pitch, we started to get momentum and all of a sudden we turned that into points. There was no clear cut message other than keep doing what we wanted to do.
“This is my first game at Twickenham and the support you feel is immense. You really do feel them get behind us at key moments. It’s second to none the felling. The passion this place brings is unbelievable.”