{"id":488287,"date":"2026-02-18T16:56:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T16:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/488287\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T16:56:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T16:56:13","slug":"the-ollie-lawrence-verdict-on-tommy-freeman-playing-in-his-position","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/488287\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ollie Lawrence verdict on Tommy Freeman playing in his position"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ollie Lawrence entered the Quilter Nations Series and Guinness Six Nations<\/a> in very similar positions this season \u2013 seeing Tommy Freeman<\/a> start at outside centre ahead of him.<\/p>\n

On the comeback from a ruptured Achilles, the Bath<\/a> centre missed the opening match of the autumn against Australia, before returning to start against Fiji<\/a> and scoring in the victory over the All Blacks<\/a> the weekend after.<\/p>\n

Likewise, he has missed the opening two rounds of the Six Nations ahead of his return to the starting XV against <\/a>Ireland<\/a> this weekend at Twickenham\u2019s Allianz Stadium.<\/p>\n

On all three occasions, Freeman \u2013 a player who has made his name as a winger \u2013 has started at outside centre, but has shifted out to the wing to accommodate the 26-year-old.<\/p>\n

While the idea of a winger by trade starting ahead of him was something Lawrence admitted he \u201cdidn\u2019t expect,\u201d when joining the BBC\u2019s Rugby Union Weekly<\/a> recently,\u00a0 he feels such versatility will only boost England\u2019s World Cup tilt next year.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

England <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Ireland <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I came in the autumn, Tommy moved to 13, straight away I was like \u2018there\u2019s another person I\u2019m competing with now,’\u201d Lawrence said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t expect it, I knew it potentially might happen, but didn\u2019t expect it to happen straight away. Then I got my opportunity in the second game. Now, again, at the start of the Six Nations, Tommy went back to 13 and I was then fighting my way get back into the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s one of those things that we need to try different combinations. Tommy is such a good player and we want to get him on the ball as much as we can. It\u2019s something that Steve wanted to try and I was happy for him to try it and for me to keep pushing to get back in that jersey. Tommy has played excellently the last few weeks and is obviously back on the wing this weekend, and hopefully, I can get the ball to him a bit more and we can link up a bit better.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s not frustrating; it\u2019s one of those things where you\u2019re there and you\u2019re knocking on the door and want to get that opportunity and you\u2019ve just got to wait your turn at times.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re building towards something in 2027 and we know that to do well in that competition and win that World Cup, we have to have a squad that\u2019s got depth and versatility. Being able to play players in different positions, whether that\u2019s Fin Smith at 12, Freemo\u2019s played at 13, Marcus has played at 15 and 10, we\u2019ve got options to move about. Even Ben Earl<\/a> and Henry Pollock<\/a> have played in the centres as well. I think the more versatility we have, the more it can help us out if we ever get yellow cards or we ever need to make changes during the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lawrence has reclaimed that No.13 jersey for the visit from Ireland this weekend, as England<\/a> look to bounce back from a nadir experienced in their round two 31-20 defeat to Scotland<\/a> in the Calcutta Cup.<\/p>\n

It will be hard to stoop lower than England\u2019s unimaginative attack in Edinburgh, but it is hoped that the inclusion of Lawrence will reinvigorate Steve Borthwick\u2019s side.<\/p>\n

Lawrence also highlighted what his head coach is expecting from him on Saturday when he returns to the Test arena.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he just wants me to bring the best part of my game, really,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that physical element both sides of the ball. Give the team some go-forward, give that punch and try and create opportunities in the wide channels, whether that\u2019s short edges or with the ball in hand off phase play. That\u2019s what I back myself to do, beat defenders and hopefully I can do that for the team at the weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ollie Lawrence entered the Quilter Nations Series and Guinness Six Nations in very similar positions this season \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-488287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}