Courtney Lawes was startled when he was told that he was being sent home from British and Irish Lions duty back in 2021, amid concerns over game time
Courtney Lawes was on the receiving end of a cruel joke from Warren Gatland(Image: Getty Images)
Courtney Lawes was devastated to hear that he was being sent home from the British and Irish Lions in 2021, in a cruel joke from Warren Gatland.
The England and Brive flanker, now 36, approached the then-Lions boss while he was having his breakfast, where he was told why he had seen his game-time drop. Lawes played almost every minute in the side’s warm-up with Japan, the entirety of the clash with Sigma Lions and then another 70 as opposition to the Cell C Sharks.
However, after being dropped for the following fixture with South Africa ‘A’, and being told he would be absent from the final warm-up with the Stormers, he was eager to know if he had done something wrong. Keen on clearing the air, he approached Gatland to ask why he wasn’t featuring.
Speaking in The Telegraph, Lawes explained: “I was beginning to worry that I had done something wrong. I caught up with him at breakfast.
“‘Sorry Courtney, we’re going to send you home,’ he said, straight-faced. Before bursting into laughter. Thankfully he was winding me up. Phew. I just needed some clarity to give me something to get my head around everything. Thankfully Gats just said that he was happy with my form so far and that I was getting looked after because of a neck niggle that I have been managing.”
Gatland also provided an update on Lawes to the media during the tour to explain his absence from certain matches, explaining: “He’s had a lot of time earlier in the tour where he was involved in a lot of games. Again another one we want to freshen up.
“We’re really happy with the way he has been contributing and playing. He’s had a bit of a stiff neck that has kept him out a bit of the contact stuff so we’re just making sure we manage him. There’s nothing wrong with him.
Courtney Lawes was a part of the 2021 Lions squad(Image: PA)
“It’s from his early involvements and the amount of minutes he has had in those early games. Again it is giving him more time so he’s fresh and ready to go for training and available for selection next week.”
At the time, Lawes also touched on how he wasn’t the only player who had been on the other end of a joke during the tour of South Africa, highlighting how Alun Wyn Jones had been playfully ribbed for turning up for a “three-week tour.”
He said: “I told him it was nice of him to finally join us having missed all the hard bit and turn up for the Tests. He does not like being wound up but he took it ok.
“There has to at least be a significant fine for turning up late on tour. I will make that suggestion to Mako, our fine-master. I am sure there will be a fine for each week he has missed.”
The Lions are currently on a tour of Australia(Image: Getty Images)
It comes as the Lions are set to wrap up their tour of Australia on Saturday without Lawes, who retired from the international game in October 2023. The Lions have enjoyed an incredible summer thus far, winning eight of their nine fixtures played; their only loss coming in the form of a 24-28 defeat at the hands of Argentina in their warm-up fixture.
Their most recent clash on Saturday saw them run out 29-26 victors over the Aussies at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, in a game which will go down as an instant classic. The Lions trailed 23-5 in the first half as Australia found their footing in incredible fashion, only for the tourists to stage a remarkable comeback through tries from Dan Sheehan, Tom Curry, Huw Jones, Tadhg Beirne and conversions from Finn Russell, before Hugo Keenan’s last-minute winner.