A call-up from Andy Farrell for the young flanker crowns a remarkable breakthrough year with club and country
These are good times at Franklin’s Gardens. Five days after the squad celebrated one of the great victories against Leinster, four of them were picked by the British & Irish Lions. The atmosphere around the old ground has been electric ever since. And while you would expect the quartet, Fin Smith, Henry Pollock, Tommy Freeman, and Alex Mitchell, to be overjoyed, what’s more telling is how happy everyone else at the club seems to be on their behalf. The video of the team celebrating the news has already gone viral, and it turns out that on the night after the squad announcement, Fraser Dingwall had them all around to his house for a celebration dinner.
Dingwall, of course, had an outside shot at making the Lions squad himself, but swallowed whatever disappointment he felt after being left out and opened a couple of bottles of champagne for the occasion.
