Freddie Burns

After a year playing with Japanese forklift truck factory workers and taking spiritual visits to Hiroshima, Freddie Burns has returned with a new perspective. He won’t be the ‘laughing stock of world rugby’ anymore. And, ask him anything, and you’ll get a straight answer. Especially when you ask about Bath.

“People ask me about my time at Bath, I fucking hated it mate, it was shit,” says Freddie. “Do you know what I mean?! I got sent off on debut, I dropped the ball against Toulouse and I hardly fucking played, of course I didn’t like it.”

Context is all important here. Freddie hasn’t begun his interview with the Rugby Journal with a tirade against his former club. Far from it. Instead, he’s highlighting how he’s opened up over the course of his career when speaking to the media, fans, or anyone who asks him a straight question. “It’s not a case of thinking ‘I can say what I want and get away with it’, but it’s a case of being myself,” he continues. “I’ve had various ups and downs in my career mate, and I find my way of getting over it is to be upfront and honest. 

“Bath was a chance for me to put on my hometown shirt and all that sort of stuff. And I am respectful towards the people there, but to be honest with you, I don’t feel I got treated particularly well by the coaching staff in terms of the honesty that I feel like you should be given as a player for how hard you work. 

“This isn’t me getting my violin out,” he adds, “and being like, ‘everyone feel sorry for me’, it’s just the truth, how I feel.”

Bath was undoubtedly a career-low for Freddie. It left him feeling stale and demoralised, and prompted him to make a radical switch, upping sticks and heading for the far east to play for Toyota Industries Corporation Shokki Shuttles in Japan’s second division. Freddie was one of just twelve professionals in a squad of 45 players at ‘Shokki’. Most of his team-mates were amateur Japanese players who work in Toyota’s forklift truck factory. 

But at ‘Shokki’, Freddie rediscovered the enthusiasm for the sport he’s been playing professionally for fourteen years; while living in Japan also had a significant impact on him – even if he cringes when talking about it. “I always see these people who go on holidays and stuff for a year to wherever it is, and they come back saying they’ve ‘discovered themselves’ and ‘found themselves’ – now I’m one of them bellends! 

“But do you know what?” he says. “I needed Japan more than I thought. It really ignited the excitement in me and changed my perspective on life and rugby. 

“I was being frozen out at Bath,” he explains. “I was training hard but not getting the rewards for it. I won’t have been the only player feeling like that – there’s players who don’t even make the matchday 23 and I don’t know how they do it. But I was a bit demoralised, a bit fed up. 

“I pride myself on my attack and I’d sit at team meetings where all anyone was harping on about is why we weren’t scoring tries and yet they would change every other player in the backline, but I was stuck on the bench. In my last season at Bath I only played once as a starting ten in the Premiership, which kind of tells you everything you need to know. 

“So, I told my agent maybe it’s time to change it up,” he says. “I’d been spoilt in playing for these prestigious, well-followed rugby clubs in England but I didn’t want to just scoot around more Premiership grounds. He had a look around and Shokki came in for me. We had a few discussions but it takes so long in Japan, then Covid happened.”

The move to Japan came at a personal cost to Freddie. Not only was he moving away from his family and friends for the first time in his life but his plans to enjoy the experience with his girlfriend fell through, leading to a break-up. “Japan definitely had an impact on that relationship,” explains Freddie. “I signed that contract and we were both thinking that Covid was going to be gone and we’d fly out together. But, as boyfriend and girlfriend, there was no spouse visa available to bring her with, so it was either getting a working visa ... so it became, ‘I’m going to Japan, and I don’t know if you’ll be able to come out one month after I get there, or six months after I get there. Suddenly it’s a whole lot of stress on what already is a stressful time in lockdown. It was tough mate, it wasn’t easy.”

Leaving his whole life behind and exchanging top-flight English rugby for Japan’s second tier, came with plenty of questioning whether he’d made the right decision. “I had left my family behind, broken up with my girlfriend, put my flat on AirBnB. On the flight over I had twelve hours of thinking, ‘I’ve literally upped sticks with four suitcases and moved my life to Japan, am I feeling okay?’

“When I arrived, Covid meant I had two weeks of isolation, sitting on the balcony and looking out of the window. But when the day came to get out, I bought myself a pushbike and went to meet the boys, and it was just excitement.

“I lived in a place called Kariya, which is near Nagoya, and it was such an amazing place. Sometimes I would sit there and go, ‘I’m in Japan, I’m living in Japan, on my own, what am I doing?’.

“I took my chances to travel,” he continues. “The first weekend I had off, I chucked my pushbike in the back of a car and went up to Kyoto on my own. I got a hotel for two nights, looked at what I wanted to do and spent a couple of days cycling around Kyoto. 

“I had always been very sceptical of doing things by myself but it turns out I’m very happy in my own company. 

“On another occasion, we had a pre-season friendly in Beppu, the ‘onsen’ capital of Japan. An onsen is a really hot bath,” he explains. “I had a sand onsen, where they bury you in the sand. Then we had a game in Hiroshima and I made sure that as soon as we touched down, I took a taxi to the atomic bomb site. I’ve been to Ground Zero in New York and I stopped off in Hawaii on my way back and went to Pearl Harbour. But there was something about that atomic bomb site ... to think that in a split-second it killed thousands of people. It’s quite nice now, they have a memorial peace garden and you stand in these places and think, ‘wow’.

“To see places like that and to travel on the Shinkansen – which is the bullet train – these sorts of things, I was really gutted the family couldn’t come out because for my old man to go on a Shinkansen, he would have lost his shit.

“I also went to Osaka for the weekend, and spent five days in Tokyo before flying home. The only thing I didn’t do that I really wanted to, was Mount Fuji. I saw it from the Shinkansen and it looks beautiful, I would have liked to have got closer.”

As well as highdays and holidays, Freddie’s journey of discovery included plenty of slower, lonelier days in his flat in Kariya. “I didn’t realise how vastly different culture and life is in Japan,” he explains. “At the supermarket, for example, you’ve got to accept that your shop is going to take three times as long as it does in England as you’ve got to Google translate everything. And on the training pitch, you can’t have the split-second conversations, to call, say, a switch. Instead, you’ve got to call the translator over. So the whole experience teaches you to practise patience.”

As well as patience, Freddie says that playing for Shokki Shuttles – named after the shuttle in the automatic loom invented by Sakichi Toyoda, founder of Toyota Industries, in 1924 – has given him back a passion for the game which had slowly ebbed away. “I’d like to think I’m a pretty humble guy,” he says. “I have time for a lot of people and, you know, I’m fully aware of my flaws and everything. 

“But Japan teaches you, well, it got me back to rugby being about your team-mates, and working hard together, not about getting positive tweets, picking up The Rugby Paper and seeing if you got a 9/10 for your performance or a 3/10, and hoping to avoid getting ridiculed online.  

“It was about working hard with guys that work on a factory floor, and then come and train with us. And I’m going to put in a performance because I want them to win because of the work they put in. If you drop a ball, if you make a mistake, you have a laugh. You have a beer with each other and you just sort of enjoy it and move on, it was a real refreshing insight into how rugby should be and how my mentality is going to be going forward.”

Most of Shokki’s players work for Toyota Industries, either in the factory offices or on the factory floor, making Toyota’s fleet of internationally exported orange-and-black forklift trucks (Shokki’s team colours are also black and orange, reflecting the livery of the company’s exports). As Freddie explains, pay rises are awarded to employees every year so joining the company from a young age is an attractive alternative to pursuing a strictly professional rugby career as they will be setting themselves up for a career post-rugby that comes with a tidy salary, rather than joining the company after the conclusion of a professional career and starting from the bottom.

Many of the squad’s appetite for training was an inspiration for Freddie. “These boys were coming in, in their suits, in their factory clothes. And after an eight or nine hour day at work, they’re chucking their rugby boots on, going out and running some of the quickest bronco times I’ve ever seen. I was probably carrying a little bit more weight than I should have been and seeing these guys made me turn around and go ‘you know what? I’m gonna get myself in shape, not because a conditioning coach is gonna fat test me, not because I need to PB this in the gym, I’m going to do it because if these guys can be that committed after a full working day, then I can do it for three hours a day over the morning and evening sessions’. 

“I guess that’s where the change in me really happened,” he continues, “you kind of realise that to do this job full time is a blessing. I was saying this to someone the other day, and I hope this comes across in the right way: right now, I’m the most motivated I’ve ever been. But also it’s the least I’ve ever given a fuck about rugby, do you know what I mean!?”

Freddie recoils at how the words come out, and clarifies his meaning. “I don’t mean I don’t care about rugby, because I do,” he explains. “I’m at Leicester, I’m here to win and I’ll do everything I can to win but you start realising that you are in a fortunate position. I have worked hard and all that stuff. 

“I am 31, I’ve got a few years left in me, you don’t know how long you are going to be about for. Suddenly it’s like it matters, yet it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. I go back to when I dropped the ball against Toulouse, and it was like the whole world ending. But when you actually sit back and you have a conversation and go ‘I dropped the ball’; I haven’t gone out drink driving, I haven’t gone and taken drugs, or killed someone, I dropped the ball over the line.”

That mistake still haunts Freddie, but he doesn’t want to forget it either. His choice of the word ‘drop’ is interesting too, as it was Toulouse’s Maxime Medard who knocked the ball out of Freddie’s hand as he stooped to touch it down – it wasn’t a drop at all. Does calling it a ‘drop’ help him deal with the mistake? Either way, he says it made him “the laughing stock of world rugby” and he believes it left a black mark against his name at Bath, from which he never fully recovered. To top it off he still receives the occasional trolling on Instagram, via a direct message. The latest was a few weeks ago and read ‘never forget’ with a picture of the moment. 

Certainly Freddie has never forgotten it. “It was a big error,” he concedes, flatly stating the words – the only time he speaks without excitement or energy in our hour and a half interview.

For those whose memory is hazy on the details. Bath were trailing Toulouse by two points in the first round of the 2018/19 Heineken Champions Cup. Towards the end of a scintillating match, in which Freddie had already scored one try and hit 4/6 goal kicks, he missed a penalty from in front of the posts, which would have given Bath the lead in the final ten minutes. A few minutes later, he seemed to have redeemed himself brilliantly by running in a try from full-back, only to have the ball knocked out of his hand by Medard. 

As Channel 4’s Miles Harrison said in commentary as the dreaded moment unfolded: “That is redemption…PUT IT DOWN…Ohhhh Freddie.”

“I was just devastated because I knew I’d let the boys down,” he admits. “My team-mates were unbelievable but it was hard to accept their sympathy because I knew I fucked up.

“I went home, got a couple of Coronas on the way and sat in the corner of my house, with the lights off and I flicked on my little brother’s [Billy] game. He was playing for Ulster against Leicester and basically every time he touched the ball the commentary team brought it up. Then at half-time they showed a highlight of it, it was just ahhh…

“The next day my parents picked me up and took me for a Sunday roast in the pub. There was a bloke reading the paper in the corner and on the back page was a picture of me and the headline ‘Clown’ above it. It was tough!

“The stupid thing is, that game I scored a try, nailed a couple of long-range penalties. If I’d put the ball down, I would probably have been man of the match! 

“It definitely lives in your head,” he adds. “I have to really focus on keeping that box closed in the corner of my mind. But at the same time, I’ve found that the best thing for me is to not forget it. It’s a mistake I made. I’m not ashamed of it. I wish it never happened. But it’s now part of my rugby journey and it’s actually probably made it a sweeter journey since then. 

“In this day and age, you can also turn around to kids and say ‘look, I made this mistake, I got 3000 tweets of abuse, yet here I am today still loving my life and having a good time, so don’t let you picking your nose when you were six and getting the mick taken out of you, get you down.’

“And I’ll tell you one thing, when I go into games now, the worst thing that could possibly happen on a rugby pitch, has happened. So, what’s going to happen this week? It’s not going to get any worse.” 

Freddie’s bad day at the office may be worse than most people’s, but his good days have been extremely satisfying, especially those that have come in an England shirt. His five caps – all won between 2012 and 2014 – include one game that will be cherished for all time by English rugby fans. “It would be nice to be sat here talking to you now with fifty caps,” he says. “But five is what I am on, and five is probably what I’ll stay at.

“But I look back on those five caps, with three wins, beating the All Blacks at a packed Twickenham – you’re going to struggle to top that – a series win in Argentina with victories in Salta, which was a bonkers atmosphere, and in Buenos Aires which was even more mental. Then to put in a performance at Eden Park against the All Blacks and again at Hamilton [both on the 2014 tour of New Zealand]. They are five caps but they are five pretty special caps, so I’m proud of them.”

His debut came, aged 22, in England’s famous 38-21 trouncing of New Zealand in 2012, which heralded England’s new era under Stuart Lancaster and Chris Robshaw. It would prove England’s best performance of the decade, with the unexpected nature of the win elevating it above the 2019 World Cup semi-final win over the All Blacks. And Freddie played a healthy cameo, getting eighteen minutes off the bench in place of a cramping Owen Farrell, knocking over two penalties and steering England to victory.

“At 22, you’re just fearless,” he recalls. “You’re nervous but you’re fearless. I was stood in the tunnel, at the back because I was on the bench, and suddenly the All Blacks come out and it’s Richie McCaw, Dan Carter, Ma’a Nonu, Conrad Smith and I’m thinking ‘what am I doing here?’.

“The Saturday before I’d been playing for Gloucester, we’d beaten someone, and I was out on the piss until fucking five in the morning. At 9am my phone goes and it’s Stuart Lancaster, so I cleared the throat and was like ‘Alright Lanny’. 

“He was like ‘yea alright, good win yesterday’. 

“‘Yeah, thanks.’ 

“Then he goes, ‘we need you to come into camp? Floody’s [Toby Flood] hurt his ankle. If he’s okay, he’ll play. If he’s not, you’ll be on the bench against the All Blacks’. So I scoffed some toast, took a bit of time to chill out, called my parents during the drive up, and when I got there, Stuart said, ‘Floody’s failed his test, you’re on the bench’.

“I think I came on when we were 32-14 up,” he recalls. “Mike Catt looked at me and said, ‘Faz is struggling with a bit of cramp’. Suddenly it’s ‘whoosh’, the stomach falls out of my ass. Then I looked up at my parents in the crowd, and my dad’s there nodding. This happens in a split second. The next thing I know, Catty’s saying ‘Burnsy you’re on’. So I’m standing on the touchline at Twickenham and by this stage I am so pumped … even talking about it I am feeling it again! 

“I came on, had a good couple of touches then they gave a penalty away ten metres in front of the posts, I remember Robbo [Robshaw] said, ‘mate take the points’ and as I was lining it up the whole crowd was singing Swing Low. I kicked it over and the crowd were going wild.”

After a dream debut, the following summer Freddie orchestrated England’s first series victory in Argentina since 1981, playing at fly-half as England swept aside Los Pumas 32-3 and 51-26, scoring 31 points across the two tests.

He was passed over for England’s autumn internationals and the 2014 Six Nations, but was selected for the summer tour of New Zealand, and with Owen Farrell playing for Saracens in the Premiership final, was given the nod for the first Test at Eden Park. 

England lost 20-15 with Conrad Smith scoring in the final minutes to give New Zealand the victory. But it might have been so different, England had been in the fight throughout and Freddie had played a mature and incisive game, kicking brilliantly out of hand, nailing his four kicks from the tee and tackling anything in black that came down his channel. 

But a brave England performance wasn’t enough to persuade Lancaster to give Freddie the nod in the second test. Instead the returning Farrell played at 10, and again England played well, losing 28-27, although the tie had been decided by the time Chris Ashton scored England’s final try in the 80th minute. Freddie was the only unused substitute left on the bench.

With the series lost, Freddie was selected for the third test but England slumped to a 36-13 loss. 

That was the last time Freddie played for England. So does he wonder how different things might have been had England snatched that victory in the first test, or had Lancaster backed his first test fly-half for a second week running? “I’m not going to sit here and say I should have started over Owen Farrell in that second test. He’s the player he is,” acknowledges Freddie. “And you can’t complain when they’re bringing back in world class players. But when you play that well, you’re ready to go for the next week, your confidence is sky-high.”

Freddie Burns in an England shirt playing on confidence? That would have had many England fans around 2014 purring at the prospect. 

Freddie himself doesn’t dwell on what might have been in the colours of England. “Do I feel like I could have been backed a little bit more? Course I do,” he admits. “But I should have kicked on with my England career and the person I hold accountable for that is myself. 

“Sometimes, I think I over-tried – got too caught up in it. I’m probably a bit different to traditional English fly-halves but my view is I should have been that good that they couldn’t have not picked me. We’re blessed in this country to have always had pretty decent fly-halves and to have been one of them, I am proud.”

England is out of Freddie’s control, so contributing to Leicester’s cause, in whichever way he can, is his immediate focus. And he’s taking to that task with all the enthusiasm he bottled in Japan. “I’m excited to be back at the club, I had a great relationship with the supporters [from his first time at the club] and the minute I walked through the door on Monday I felt at home. Everything has changed but nothing has changed. It’s still the same place. The changing rooms are different, the coaching set up is different but the kitman Clive is the same, the ground staff are the same, the people in the kitchen are the same. Andrea [Pinchen], who was a department head when I was last here is now the CEO so it’s nice to see the people within the club being promoted.

“I’m here for two years, I’m going to work my ass off and if I’m asked to play full-back, or if I’m asked to play at ten, or if I’m asked to play from the bench, then the days of me getting pissed off about that have gone. We’ve got Fordy [George Ford] who is a world class player. We’ve got Bryce Hegarty as well and Stuart Lancaster’s son, Dan, so we’ve got a good core group of fly-halves and full-backs. I just want to contribute and enjoy being a professional rugby player and enjoy being around the boys for two more years, and see where I get to at the end of that. 

“Last year what I liked about Leicester was that they put in place the foundations; we’re back to being a strong pack and have put the dog back in the team, which is synonymous with great Leicester sides. 

“You know now that at Welford Road you’re going to get an incredibly physical battle.”

And a happy Freddie Burns, playing with the shackles off, wherever he ends up on the pitch.  

Story by Jack Zorab

Pictures by Oli Hillyer-Riley

Stylist: Ellie Witt

Grooming: Rachel Singer Clark

Location: Four Seasons Hotel Hampshire

This extract was taken from issue 15 of Rugby.
To order the print journal, click here.