Fraser Dingwall’s burgeoning centre partnership with Ollie Lawrence was one of the biggest positives to emerge from an England victory over New Zealand that was full of them and the Northampton Saints star has discussed what is making the duo so successful.
Although they played alongside each other a few times at youth level, it’s only during this autumn’s Quilter Nations Series that they have had a chance to properly renew that link-up for the senior England team.
A first start together against Italy during this year’s Six Nations lasted less than 10 minutes before Lawrence went off with a ruptured achilles tendon that ultimately ruled him out of contention for the British and Irish Lions tour, but they have now formed Steve Borthwick’s preferred 12-13 axis for the 38-18 triumph over Fiji and the superb 33-19 win against the All Blacks, after Dingwall started the autumn with Saints team-mate Tommy Freeman outside him.
Thee were flashes of their quality against Fiji but they reached another level in the first England victory over New Zealand at Twickenham since 2012, dovetailing superbly in attack to run the All Blacks ragged.
Lawrence scored a first-half try when he demonstrated his freakish physicality to shove Leroy Carter to the ground and then bounce off an attempted Beauden Barrett tackle, before showing a more deft touch in the second half to expertly tip the ball inside to Dingwall, who had run a stunning line that enabled him to scythe between two defenders and touch down for a try that extended the advantage to 25-12.
And Dingwall has revealed that being partnered by someone with Lawrence’s gifts makes his job easier.
“I just feel lucky I’m able to play alongside someone as talented as that,” said Dingwall. “He can do some unbelievable things, he can open a little bit of space for me as well which we saw.
“Centre partnerships always take a little bit of time to develop and you work out how you can complement each other. Fortunately we’ve known each other for a long time, we played some age group stuff together.
“To build, this has been the first time we’ve had a bit of run together which has been nice. He’s obviously a bit bigger than me and can do some of the power work and hopefully I can do some of the bits to put him in space as well.
“There’s a bit of understanding [from age-grade] but it just takes work. From work in the training week, spending time together. There’s no secret other than spending time together, talking with each other, reviewing things together and actually putting in the work to understand how a partnership works, get the best out of each other and get a backline to function and hopefully we’re starting to find that.”
Dingwall also believes Lawrence has returned from that devastating achilles injury in a stronger spot than ever, impressing for both England and club side Bath.
“What I know about Ollie is that he wants to be one of the greatest centres in the world and he’s got the capability to do that,” added the 26-year-old.
“Look at the way he recovered from his rehab. His mind is clearly in a great spot if he’s come back a few months early, he was pushing on every single facility to get out what he could out of it. He’s in a great spot mentally and you’re seeing some great performances because of it.”
The Northampton Saint also discussed the intricacies of the 55th-minute try he scored, as the centres combined to exploit some space thy’d previously spotted.
“We’d actually called it a couple of lineouts before and we ran it and we were both, ‘go on, there’s a bit of space there, that feels like it could be a good option’,” explained Dingwall.
“We came to the play and called it and said ‘you’re against 12 here so I think I’m going to be on’ and he agreed. He played right at the line and I skated through untouched. It was built over the game.
“George Ford would called the play but the option that we actually played within that, so the tip pass, was me and Ollie working that out.”
England are now on a 10-game winning streak and can complete a perfect autumn if they beat Argentina at Allianz Stadium next weekend.
While he won’t be underestimating a Pumas side that impressed during the Rugby Championship and have already downed Scotland and Wales this month, Dingwall highlighted the importance of ending the campaign on a high.
“It’s incredibly important,” he added. “We don’t want to be a team that peaks and has one brilliant performance or has a massive spike. If you want to truly be the team that we want to be, you’ve got to do it every single week.
“So I’ve got no questions about how the group is going to turn up with the same attitude to get better. Review the game honestly, take the learnings, take the positives but once again it’s about attacking another week, we’re playing against a quality Argentina side and that becomes the next most important thing.
“They’re a great side, they’ve got some unbelievable players. They’re a dynamic team, they’re physical with their forwards but their backs are able to move the ball nicely, some speed and some really good players out there. It’s not a challenge we’re going to take lightly, it’s a proper test and it’s just really exciting to get into another week.
“[Four wins form four] wasn’t so much spoken about before the games, we’re week-by-week focused. But we’ve got long-term goals around where we want to get to and this is all part of it and building momentum and identity and understanding what we’re about as a group and the belief within that, that’s one of the main objectives of this autumn and we’re doing a pretty good job of it so far.”
