{"id":883574,"date":"2026-09-07T19:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T19:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/883574\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T19:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T19:20:11","slug":"sales-courtney-lawes-not-worried-about-legacy-in-drive-to-make-england-return-prem-rugby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/883574\/","title":{"rendered":"Sale\u2019s Courtney Lawes \u2018not worried about legacy\u2019 in drive to make England return | Prem Rugby"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtney Lawes was not expecting to be named in Steve Borthwick\u2019s pre\u2011season England squad over the weekend. While the 37-year-old has made clear that his return to the Prem with Sale Sharks<\/a> is in no small part down to his ambition to feature in a fifth World Cup next year, much like the national head coach Lawes favours action rather than words.<\/p>\n

Borthwick has explained to players such as Lawes, his fellow Sale<\/a> arrival Joe Marchant and Newcastle\u2019s new No 8 Hoskins Sotutu that in order to achieve England selection they must prove themselves against the players they are now competing with in the Prem.<\/p>\n

As such, Lawes was circumspect when discussing what is privately a fierce determination to add to his 105 caps. \u201cIf I play well for Sale I\u2019ll give myself an opportunity to play for England,\u201d was his response, aware that Borthwick\u2019s side have hardly kicked on since he last turned out for them at the 2023 World Cup.<\/p>\n

What fascinates most, though, is why Lawes is putting himself through it at all.<\/p>\n

There were times in his final years with Northampton and England that Lawes appeared bound together with gaffer tape. Peel away at the frayed edges and after years of what he describes as \u201cballs-to-the-wall rugby\u201d you feared he would crumple in a heap of exhausted parts. Nonetheless, the level at which he was performing at the 2023 World Cup and particularly his final, title\u2011winning season with Northampton was little short of stratospheric. After signing off from English rugby, winners\u2019 medal secured, performing his valedictory press conference topless and wearing ski goggles, does his return not risk tarnishing that legacy?<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t feel nervous,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m not too worried about legacy at this point. I\u2019d much rather come back and not be able to make it than not know whether you\u2019ve called time a bit early. I\u2019ll give it my best effort and the cards will lie where they lie.\u201d<\/p>\n

To anyone with a passing interest in Lawes\u2019s career, particularly from the point of his Test resurgence under Eddie Jones, it will come as no surprise that he worries little about legacy. He has four children but there is not the financial imperative either, even if a move to Sale \u2013 with whom his wife\u2019s family has close ties \u2013 was brought about in part because Northampton could not afford to bring him back. There is a school of thought that worries Lawes is in for a rude awakening after two years in France\u2019s second tier with Brive, but it is clear that he has a steely confidence that he can still perform. What has made Lawes one of the most likable England internationals of recent years is that he backs himself without any accompanying bravado.<\/p>\n

Courtney Lawes: \u2018I\u2019d much rather come back and not be able to make it than not know whether you\u2019ve called time a bit early.\u2019 Photograph: Jan Kruger\/Getty Images for Sale Sharks<\/p>\n

\u201cAt Brive I don\u2019t think I played more than three weeks on the bounce, and very often it was two weeks,\u201d Lawes says. \u201cSo it probably prolonged my career a little bit, going out there and not having to play balls-to-the-wall rugby every single week. I wasn\u2019t ready to retire last season. I was still playing really well and still one of the better players in the league. So I thought I\u2019d go one more time. You\u2019re a long time retired and I can still move really well so, why not when you\u2019ve still got it in your legs?\u201d<\/p>\n

Those statements will be music to the ears of Alex Sanderson and his fellow coaches at Sale. Indeed, there is an unmistakable buzz around the place after the arrival of Lawes, who demonstrated his will to win by clinching the pre\u2011season padel competition with Dom Hanson. Young players are in awe of him and senior pros such as George Ford have been taken aback by the levels that Lawes can still reach. Given how highly he rates Ford\u2019s opinion, that will be music to the ears of Borthwick too.<\/p>\n

It seems inevitable then, that if he stays fit, Lawes\u2019s return to the England fold will come in the autumn. It is a big if, but there are grounds for optimism. The season before the last World Cup, Lawes barely played for Northampton, making four appearances before mid-April. He had sustained what he thought was a head injury in September 2022 but further investigation revealed a problem with his vestibular system. He returned and performed superbly well for England during their World Cup campaign but he surprised even himself with the heights he hit in the following campaign with Saints.<\/p>\n

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By then, however, a move to France had been agreed and international retirement had been announced. That is not to suggest Lawes regrets his move to Brive, rather that after maintaining standards across the Channel, he believes he has unfinished business with England. All the more so because Lawes has always been an advocate of scrapping the Rugby Football Union rule that prevents players based outside England being selected.<\/p>\n

Courtney Lawes made the last of his 105 appearances for England at the 2023 World Cup. Photograph: David Davies\/PA<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen some of your better players are out in France, I don\u2019t see why you\u2019d limit yourself,\u201d he says. \u201cNo, I can see why they do it because they don\u2019t want all their players playing abroad but I don\u2019t think that\u2019s necessarily going to be the case anyway. It\u2019s important that you have the best players available for selection. If we want the game to develop and more people to watch it, I think [the rugby landscape] has to develop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lawes is at pains to say that moving to France is not for everyone but believes he returns with a few more strings to his bow and says the key difference in France is one of autonomy. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to have a very specific mindset,\u201d he says. \u201cI see why players, take your Sextons, that are used to doing things a certain way, a certain standard, how they struggle, because you have got to be adaptable, you\u2019ve got to be relaxed as well and have the ability to say: \u2018OK, let\u2019s do it your way.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s much more individual focused rather than team focused. In terms of the players there, instead of moving the ball to space they\u2019re expected to go for the space themselves, that kind of thing.\u201d In other words, the kind of thing that Borthwick\u2019s England are crying out for.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Courtney Lawes was not expecting to be named in Steve Borthwick\u2019s pre\u2011season England squad over the weekend. While…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":883575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-883574","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\/883574","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=883574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/883575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=883574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=883574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=883574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}