Exclusive: Tommy Freeman says England on a mission to excite fans again - 'We want to make them proud of us'

Whatever happens at this year’s Six Nations, Northampton Saints winger Tommy Freeman says a “massive” goal for England is to excite their own fans once again.

Steve Borthwick’s side laboured to a fourth-place finish in the 2023 edition of the Six Nations, and was booed at various times during last year’s Rugby World Cup despite coming so close to beating South Africa in the semi-finals, before going on to clinch third place in the play-off game against Argentina.

England's fans have had relatively little to cheer about since lifting the 2020 Six Nations trophy, but they did begin this season's Six Nations with a win away at Italy.

Asked if it’s important to get fans up off their seats again ahead of the mouthwatering clash against Wales at Twickenham on Saturday, Freeman told TNT Sports: “Yeah, I think it's massive.

"I think we've said we want to take the crowd with us. We want to obviously make it [Twickenham] a horrible place for oppositions to come.

"And we can create that environment with our fans, but also in our favour we want to bring them on the journey we're going on.

“We want to make them proud of us, make them look at us and see an England performance in the way we're going about our business. If we can bring them on that journey, it'll be brilliant.”

England, who will be unchanged on Saturday, had to dig deep to come from behind to beat Italy 27-24 in Rome to kick-start their campaign with a victory on a day in which Freeman made his Six Nations debut.

For Freeman, the performance at the Stadio Olimpico represented “a step in the right direction" for Borthwick's men.

One major positive was the second-half turnaround, particularly in the structure and application of their blitz defence that has been a key focus under new coach Felix Jones.

However, with a buoyant Wales set to arrive in the English capital, fresh off an incredible second-half 'almost comeback' against Scotland at the Principality Stadium, a better showing will likely be required to down Warren Gatland’s charges.

One man who was instrumental in the Welsh revival in Cardiff last Saturday was Tommy Reffell. The Leicester Tigers flanker was a constant thorn in Scotland’s side at the breakdown and Freeman admitted England are all too aware about the threat he poses.

“We've definitely mentioned his name a lot around camp prepping for this game,” Freeman added. “He’s going to be someone we're going to try keep off our ball because we know he is a threat around that breakdown area.

“Obviously England v Wales is a massive occasion. At our home ground, we want it to be a tough place to come and we’ll make sure we don't make it easy because we know they'll keep coming.

“I know they won't give up, like you saw in the Scotland game.”

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