What a year for Holt RFC's very own Freddie Steward. Accomplished performances on both international and domestic campaigns has been topped with picking up two honours at the Rugby Players’ Association Awards in London on Wednesday evening.

Leicester Tigers full-back Steward received the awards as the Young Player of the Year and England Men’s Player of the Year at the Eterlast RPA Awards held at Evolution London on Wednesday evening.

The 21-year-old Steward reached 50 first-team appearances for Tigers in the European win over Clermont Auvergne in April and topped the MPH Sports Young Player of the Year poll ahead of fellow nominees Marcus Smith, Bevan Rodd and Henry Arundell.

Freddie has been an inspiration to all our youth and mini's this seasons and we are very proud of him as a club for what he has achieved so far in his career. We look forward to seeing him continue to develop and improve as his career progresses.

Like many young lads, Freddie played a number of sports in his younger years, enjoying everything from football to hockey, swimming and cricket. It was at the age of 6 that his parents Ben and Jane took him to Swaffham rugby club, where his older brother Harry was already playing and persuaded a reluctant youngster to get out of the car and join in a game of tag. Harry then moved to Holt to join the U10s when his Swaffam year group was no longer able to field a side with Freddie reluctantly following. Loyalty is a great attribute of Freddie and something that is very much a part of his character. In making the move a year later, he of course never knew that one day he would run out of the players tunnel at Welford Road with Tom and Ben Youngs, both legends of Leicester Tigers and Holt Rugby Club.

While at Holt he was privileged to be part of a fantastic squad which was successful in so many ways over and above just winning. With Mark Jaggard’s caring and motivational leadership, the boys were a group that very much held rugby’s core values at its heart. As his commitments increased with school rugby and the Leicester Developing Player Programme, Freddie had to reduce his commitment to Sunday rugby by the age of 15 and with his older brother leaving for university it was his younger brother Guy who carried on family representation at the Club.

It was around that age that everything started to get more serious as GCSEs needed attending to with the added pressure of the Leicester squad being continually narrowed down, culminating in the U16 Wellington Festival before selection for the Tigers Academy was made. At the same time, Freddie made his debut for the Norwich School first team at full back, a position he had not previously played having plied his trade at 10 and 12. Playing every game for three seasons, the last was a record unbeaten run from a team that he led as captain and which was instilled with the same core values he learnt at Holt.

The call that Freddie wanted so much then came, confirming that he had secured an academy place at Leicester. That was when the really hard work started, with trips to Leicester from Norwich every Monday and at times also on a Friday leaving at lunch time and often not returning home until after 11pm. Studying for his A levels needed a new approach and he was followed by his dutiful laptop with lessons and homework often done on the hoof. An interesting quote sticks in the mind from one of his teachers at parents evening which went along the lines of, ‘can’t comment, haven’t seen him although everything comes back on time and up to scratch.’ On another occasion, he was asked to join an England training session and having found his way to the team hotel in London he was greeted by players he had always looked up to as a youngster including Maro Itoje and Owen Farrell before taking himself off to finish a school assignment in the restaurant. Nevertheless, grades were achieved and a place to study economics at Loughborough to study Economics secured.

At this time, the academy was run by Dave Wilks and Jamie Taylor who led a very strong group of players to victory in two unbeaten seasons and successive academy league final wins. In Freddie’s year an unprecedented 10 players graduated to development contracts with the majority of those players still with Tigers and a large number having made senior appearances.

Freddie started his Leicester career playing for Loughborough students, followed by one game on loan to Ampthill and a number of appearances in the Premiership Cup before covid hit and brought the 2019/20 season to a premature close. The restart of the league in the autumn of 2020 opened up a huge opportunity with a number of senior players leaving following the salary cap cut, one being Telusa Veainu the incumbent full back. After more than 50 caps for the senior team having just turned 21, he has never looked back, gaining a reputation for excellence under the highball and nicknamed in the press as ‘the air Steward.’

The pinnacle came in the summer of 2021 with a call up to the England squad for the three test series against USA and Canada. The memory of a first cap and running out at Twickenham in front of family and friends is a rugby experience that may never be matched. Although tries and man of the match performances against Australia and South Africa in the autumn and starting every Six Nations game this spring came close.

None of this has been achieved without a huge amount of commitment, effort and sacrifice and it is credit to Freddie that so much has been achieved at such a young age. As to his parents they thought they had booked an evening at the team hotel when Freddie asked if they could come back after the South Africa match but quickly added, ‘to pick up my case, golf clubs and dirty washing’ – nothing changes. His brothers, Harry at 6’7 and Guy approaching the same height are still playing rugby and are available for hire!

Many thanks to Freddie's proud father Ben Steward for help with the above write-up.