Fraser Dingwall: Northampton Saints center on journey from fan to love winner

Fast forward to today and Dingwall is one of the leaders of the Northampton Saints side that peaked at Love and reached a European Champions Cup final a year ago – and he also made his England debut.

At the start of each week at Saints, coaches and senior players such as Dingwall provide messages and motivation for the upcoming game.

Friday night’s semi-final against Leicester Tigers must have sharpened the mind, especially heavy defeat Mattioli Woods in Welford Road last month.

“We address emotions earlier in the week,” he said. “Messaging is very deliberate and it starts before people realize it.

“The emotional cues are picked up at the end of the week before the game.

“Our leadership style comes from our actions. The best leaders I’ve seen support how they act.”

Dingwall has been described as the “glue player”, who does all the invisible work in both defense and attack, improving the players around him.

He laughs at the label, but likes it.

“It’s a nice thing to say and has good meaning,” he laughs. “As long as I bring out the best in people, it can be a good thing for me.

“I hope the players feel my presence. I’m out there giving information and there’s a lot of small decisions to be made. It can happen very quickly, it can become chaotic and so you’re always desperate to be level-headed.

“We still get a lot wrong but the more you practice the more you get right. Leadership is also about self-awareness.”