{"id":170296,"date":"2025-06-09T13:05:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T13:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/170296\/"},"modified":"2025-06-09T13:05:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T13:05:09","slug":"ex-england-skipper-why-fraser-dingwall-is-worth-his-weight-in-gold-planet-rugby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/170296\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-England skipper – Why Fraser Dingwall is ‘worth his weight in gold’ : Planet Rugby"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dylan Hartley has backed Fraser Dingwall to continue growing his influence with England on their upcoming summer tour. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Steve Borthwick\u2019s side will kick off preparations with an uncapped fixture versus a France XV at Twickenham on June 21 before flying out for a two-match July Test series in Argentina followed by a one-off game versus the USA.<\/p>\n

It was away to Italy in February 2024 when Dingwall<\/a> made his England<\/a> Test debut but despite scoring a crucial try in the win over Wales the following weekend in London, the Northampton midfielder had to wait 13 months before eventually earning his third cap in March 2025.<\/p>\n

That recall came against the Italians at Twickenham and was followed by another start in the record hammering of Wales which secured England second place in the Six Nations, their best placing since their 2020 title win.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is the wise head\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Dingwall has since skippered his club in their Champions Cup final appearance against Bordeaux<\/a> and the retired Hartley<\/a> believes his former Saints teammate can now solidify his reputation as an important part of the England midfield on their Americas tour.<\/p>\n

Speaking in an interview with OLBG<\/a>, Hartley said: \u201cFraser is often overlooked as he is in the shadow of so many quality players around him. I say this most respectfully because he isn\u2019t overtly flashy and physically he is not huge like an Ollie Lawrence<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut for me, he is the glue \u2013 he is the guy that brings it all together. And then you sprinkle on the captaincy piece as well, he is the wise head.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt 18, 19 when he was in the academy, you gravitate to the young kids who have got a nice way about them. They\u2019re not shy, they\u2019re not meek. They are quietly confident, respectful and ask good questions. Fraser has always been that guy.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a technical and a tactical point of view, he pulls it all together. He makes it tick. But then from a leadership point of view, he also pulls it all together. For me, he is a guy that is worth his weight in gold.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\u2018It\u2019s a shame\u2019 \u2013 The one regret Ben Youngs has after Michael Cheika guides Leicester to the Premiership final<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

To explain this value, Hartley referenced the legendary Chicago Bulls basketball team that has Michael Jordan as its star.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a book called The Captain Class, and it refers to the Chicago Bulls team, Michael Jordan\u2019s team, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd there is a guy that you don\u2019t know, a guy no one ever remembers called Bill Cartwright. That guy made it all work. He got the ball where it needed to be. He got the ball to Jordan. And it\u2019s the same with Messi. Someone passes the ball to Messi. Someone puts him in the best position.<\/p>\n

\u201cGranted that guy is probably paid millions of pounds, but he is not on the back of everyone\u2019s shirt. No one\u2019s buying his shirt. I\u2019m not saying that is Fraser, but he is the guy that makes it all work and gets the ball to Tommy Freeman, to George Furbank.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis summer with England is his opportunity. This is a really good chance for him to solidify his reputation and his credit with Steve Borthwick<\/a>. I really hope he does because he is a fantastic man.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: British & Irish Lions suffer setback as \u2018explosive prop\u2019 forced to withdraw from Australia tour<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dylan Hartley has backed Fraser Dingwall to continue growing his influence with England on their upcoming summer tour.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170297,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[748,70979,393,45821,4884,12074,225,12,6875,26349,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-170296","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-dylan-hartley","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-fraser-dingwall","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-harlequins","14":"tag-home-page","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-premiership","17":"tag-steve-borthwick","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114653556067096529","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}