‘It’s pretty cool’ – Dingwall happy to have the honour of captaining England A

The Saints centre will lead an exciting blend of youth and experience in the fixture against Australia A, which takes place at the Twickenham Stoop on Sunday afternoon (kick-off 2pm).

Dingwall is one of six Saints players in the England A squad, with Manny Iyogun, Curtis Langdon, Tom Pearson, Henry Pollock and Archie McParland also included.

And when asked about being handed the honour of skippering the side, Dingwall said: “It's pretty cool.

"The whole week is set up to be pretty exciting, just with the group of players coming in for a week and playing an Australian side as well.

"It's set to be quite a tough challenge but a very exciting opportunity that I'm lucky enough to be involved in.

"Then hopefully we'll go well at the weekend.”

Dingwall has already been enjoying one of the perks of captaincy at camp this week.

He said: “I'm the lucky one because I do get a room by myself. That is probably the highest privilege that comes with it!

"I think Furbs (Saints skipper George Furbank) could have a room by himself at Saints but he opts to have someone in there because he gets too lonely!”

However, Dingwall isn’t letting captaincy alter his approach.

“I'm trying to make sure it doesn't change me too much,” he said.

"I do naturally gravitate towards leadership roles and I would hope it wouldn't change how I am with the rugby side of it generally.

"I'd like to offer a bit of experience around the style of game we're trying to play to these lads who have come in for the week.

"Hopefully I can just encourage an environment where everyone is keen to be themselves so they chuck out a good version of themselves to be looked at by everyone in an England shirt.

"There's a real range of people here. Either this is their first involvement in an international camp or they have been capped and are looking to springboard their way up that ladder.

"There's a real mix of experience in and around these environments and also such an array of talent with people who are playing really well at their clubs.

"Being exposed to different players and a different style of coaching is really good for development as well.”