by Sitting in the stands at Franklin Gardens on Friday night, Steve Borthwick must have felt like a child whose parents failed to order the sold-out toy for Christmas as the England head coach watched Courtney Lawes deliver another man of the life. – a match performance for Northampton.
Lawes is now the device that Borthwick cannot have. He will not be returning to international rugby and yet he continues to perform at an international standard as he showed in the 22-19 win over Toulon which makes Northampton two wins out of two in the Champions Cup.
The 34-year-old’s desirability has only increased with injuries to England back-rows ahead of the Six Nations but Lawes is not having second thoughts about his decision to retire, even if he will not block Borthwick’s number just yet. “I’m trying to do my thing,” Lawes said. “It’s a lot easier to have everything set up at home. I’m enjoying my rugby and that’s what it is, you know. I just want to play well, play for the boys, and we dug into each other pretty well. The job is not done yet. We have pretty big ambitions this season, but it’s obviously been a great start and we couldn’t have done much better.”
Borthwick may not be the only one to fill in for Lawes, whose contract expires at the end of this campaign. Last season, negotiations lasted until April and Lawes left his future open, especially when England selection was no longer a factor in his decision. “You don’t really mean to talk before Christmas, but I’m very happy to get on with my rugby,” Lawes said. “When the contracts come in I’m sure I could have a few options. I hope to stay but we’ll see what happens.”
Lawes told Phil Dowson, Northampton’s director of rugby, that he wanted to have a period of reflection before talks really began but the club are hopeful he will remain a one-club man. “The way he’s playing right now I feel like he’s really enjoying himself and enjoying being with these young guys,” Dowson said. “It’s keeping it fresh. We are very hopeful. We want to keep it.”
There are few finer club servants than Lawes who grew up just a few kicks from Franklin Gardens and made his debut for the club against Esher in the old National One in 2007. A single Premiership title in 2014 as well as a couple of Probably that the Challenge Cup was a disappointing result. But after knocking out English champions Saracens and the United Rugby Championship runners-up (Glasgow Warriors) and Top 14 (Toulon) in back-to-back weeks, Lawes says there is now real confidence that Northampton can mix with anyone.
“No matter when I go, when I retire or whatever, you always want to win silverware and have those memories, and play on the big stages for the big cups,” Lawes said. “It’s something I want to do, to win more silverware here. We are on the right track. We’ve gone a while without winning anything so we want to put that right.
“[The win against Toulon] He’s a great example for us, and those kinds of wins you can really keep coming up until the second half of the season. You can really increase the faith when the chips are down, because you have a chance to come back like we did. All I can say is that we had time, and that’s all you need. We have proven that we can really score from anywhere. I believed we could and we did.”
Part of Lawes’ confidence stems from the development of Saints’ young players who are now establishing consistency to match their potential. Tommy Freeman, in particular, has impressed Lawes in his new role at outside center as one of many players at the Gardens who have England ambitions.
“He’s a big guy, man,” Lawes said. “He’s 6ft 4in, over 100kg. As a full-back, that’s big, and with that kind of speed as well, he’s going to be a very dangerous player. To see him mature and really perform consistently – that’s what will get him back on the international stage. He deserves it.
“The whole team, a lot of the young lads have matured a lot over the last season and the start of this season. We have a lot of boys in the pack – Curtis Langdon is doing great, then Alex Moon and Alex Coles who are performing consistently. Alex Mitchell went to the World Cup and has been excellent since coming back. Furbs [George Furbank] leading the charge with Fraser Dingwall and Freemo. It’s great to see these good English players playing consistent rugby, playing well, and hopefully they get a shot to make it on the big stage.”
