Patience pays off for Saints and England centre Dingwall

Because both players who spoke to the local press in the build-up to Friday’s Gallagher Premiership game against Leicester Tigers have showed in recent years that persistence and patience pays off.

First through the door was a jubilant Burger Odendaal, whose smile was as broad as his frame as he spoke about his recent long-awaited return from a serious knee injury.

And next up was his centre partner, Fraser Dingwall, a young man who has had to bide his time with England but who is now reaping the rewards of his desire to shine on the international stage.

Dingwall made a couple of Six Nations appearances last year, debuting against Italy before scoring a memorable try against Wales at Twickenham in the process.

But he then had to wait until this year’s tournament to feature again, starting in recent victories against the same nations he won his first two England caps against.

Dingwall now feels more at home with England, and his confidence levels in the Test arena continue to rise.

"The Six Nations as a whole went really well for the squad,” said Dingwall, reflecting on England’s second-place finish.

“We obviously had a journey within it where we went from not winning the first game and then finishing up with some really good wins.

“It's been a cool period.

“I feel like I've definitely had to be patient and there's been many a time where I've had to keep myself going and stick at it.

“For that patience to pay off was very rewarding.

"It did (feel different) this time. Whether that's the nature of playing alongside Fin (Smith) or the team being more established in what they were trying to do, to myself being more established, there were a lot of elements involved.

“I did feel like I could come back into that team and make an impact immediately how I wanted to, whereas last year the team was kind of working out what they wanted to be so it was a bit more challenging.”

It’s very much out of the frying pan out of the fire this week for Dingwall as he has little time to sit back and savour England’s stunning 68-14 win in Wales last Saturday.

He is now back with Saints and preparing for a crucial derby-day date with Leicester Tigers at cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens on Friday night.

"We're straight back in and the hard part is transitioning as quickly as possible and getting back up to speed with everything that's going on here, reintegrating with the squad and building those connections on the pitch as quickly as possible, but that doesn't take long because you spend so much time with them anyway,” Dingwall said.

“We're just geared up for a really exciting game on Friday so it couldn't be more perfect to come back into.

"We're just excited to get straight back into club rugby and the atmosphere here on Friday will be unbelievable so the intensity will be right back up there.

“It gives you something to get after immediately, which is the exciting part.

“You leave (the England camp) after a good couple of weeks and just want more rugby so to come back in and be immediately offered a cool opportunity is good.

"We're in a position where we need to win as many games as possible so we don't have a choice around how we want to turn up, which is really exciting for the team.

“If we get a bit of a roll on, starting this Friday, it could be a really exciting run-in.”

With seven league games to go, Saints are nine points adrift of Leicester, who currently occupy the final play-off spot.

"There's lots of comeback stories, loads of stuff around us being a team that has gone into the top four having not been in it before Christmas,” said Dingwall, who will skipper Saints against Tigers.

“It's kind of why can't we go and do it, why can't we get a roll on and see where we end up.

“It starts on Friday and that's what we've got to get after first.”