THE BEST for high ball stuff is actually the AFL in Australia,” says Freddie Steward. We’ve barely begun talking and already the gravity-snubbing star is off with a leap into the notion of cribbing from other sports like Aussie Rules.
Later he tells us that he wants to be “the best in the world under the high ball” but his appetite for improvement there is already fully understood. We’ve grown accustomed to seeing the England and Leicester Tigers full-back throwing himself upwards at plummeting rugby balls, regardless of the human traffic around him. But then he lets us in on what he has been doing off the park on this aspect of his game.
“There’s a ton of AFL clips on YouTube and Neil Craig (assistant coach to former England boss Eddie Jones) has an AFL background, so we’ve been through some of them. Like the way they’re taught to ‘climb’ on top of people and get in the air is just incredible. They are the best at that in the
