Former England skipper Dylan Hartley has named Tommy Freeman and Fraser Dingwall as the rookies who have impressed him the most during this year’s Six Nations.
Asked which of the fresh faces he has enjoyed watching, Hartley said: “Tommy Freeman. He has been doing good things with Northampton.
“I have a clear bias because I am a Northampton man, but it’s strength of character, a testament to him because Eddie Jones capped him and then he kind of went away for a little bit, not on form or not on Eddie’s form.
“For Steve [Borthwick] to recognise his excellence and his form to bring him back in it means he hasn’t gone away sulking and then buggered off to France or something like that.
“And Fraser, he is a little bit older, has been chipping away. He has been an old wise head at Northampton for such a young guy and he has been integral to Northampton.”