Saints centre Dingwall raring to go after recovering from knee issue

The centre, who has not played since Saints beat Harlequins on October 4, is ready to captain England A against Australia A at the Twickenham Stoop on Sunday (kick-off 2pm).

"I'm all good now," Dingwall said.

"My knee - there was a lot going on in there.

"To be honest, it was a lot better than what it could have been when I first saw the scan so I'm all good now and looking forward to playing again really.

"I picked up the injury in the first game of the season against Bath and carried it for a few weeks so we kind of made a call where we needed to actually get on top of it otherwise I'd just be sat with a recurring issue.

"I was off feet for about a week and a bit but the specialist thought it was all okay to start cracking on early.

"It's a bit of an accelerated return but I'm feeling good."

Dingwall has only been able to play three games in what has been a mixed start to the season for Saints.

They have won three and lost three in the Gallagher Premiership so far.

“It's been a little bit inconsistent unfortunately,” Dingwall said.

"We've had decent patches but we haven't really strung together enough within each of the games to justify any more (wins).

"Where we sit with three wins and three losses is probably a fair reflection of how we've played.

"There's a lot of good stuff being done and a lot of stuff that's not being done but I feel a lot of that is easily corrected.

"I've got full confidence coming back into the block that easy adjustments can be made and things start to line up a bit more again.”

Saints enjoyed a fantastic run of form over the Christmas and New Year period during the previous campaign.

And they would clearly love a repeat of that this time round.

"It's funny because you speak to people around the ground and there's a bit of 'oh, we're not doing as well this year' but we're kind of sat in the same position as we were last year,” Dingwall said. “We didn't start the season unbelievably well last year.

"There's still a lot of time left.

"Boys have gone away and it will be good to refresh to then come back all together with a good attitude to crack on again.

"We're really not far off in a lot of performances so I've got full belief we'll start to pick up.”