{"id":517365,"date":"2026-04-07T09:43:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T09:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/517365\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T09:43:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T09:43:10","slug":"sharks-to-sign-england-legend-lawes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/517365\/","title":{"rendered":"Sharks to sign England legend Lawes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sale Sharks have agreed a deal to sign England and British and Irish Lions forward Courtney Lawes on a one-year deal from the start of the 2026\/27 season.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The versatile 37-year-old, who can play at lock or in the back row, won 105 caps for his country during a 14-year international career that included four Rugby World Cups and five Lions caps across two tours.<\/p>\n

On the domestic scene he played almost 300 times for his boyhood club, Northampton Saints, and captained them to their first Gallagher PREM title in ten years in 2024.<\/p>\n

That 2024 PREM final, against Bath, would be his final game in green and gold before leaving for French side Brive. <\/p>\n

Now after two years in the south of France he\u2019s heading back across the channel to join Sharks\u2019 Northern Force and have one last crack at English rugby\u2019s biggest prize \u2013 and maybe even force his way into Steve Borthwick\u2019s England squad.<\/p>\n

\"\"(Photo by David Rogers\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Courtney said: \u201cI\u2019m really excited to be joining Sale. I\u2019ve been out of the Prem now for a couple of years and I just want to finish my career playing at a the top level. I think Sale have got a brilliant squad so hopefully I can add to that and we\u2019ll see what we can do next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy body feels good and I\u2019m still performing at a high level. I feel like I can compete with the best of them, and then some, and I think if I retired now, I\u2019d probably regret it when I was older.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a rugby player, you\u2019ve got a very finite career and you\u2019re a long time retired so I want to make the most of it while I can, give it everything for another season and then we\u2019ll see what happens.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I decided I wanted to come back to the Prem there were only a couple of teams I would have signed for. Obviously Saints because of my history, but Sale were the other one because my wife\u2019s family is all from Cheshire.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be quite a few familiar faces at the club. I\u2019ve played with a lot of the England lads and Dorian West was my first forwards coach as a professional player. I know the club is bringing in some brilliant player for next season too \u2013 guys like Joe Marchant and Alex Lozowski will add a lot on and off the field.<\/p>\n

\"\"(Photo by David Rogers\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m officially un-retiring from international duty and I\u2019d love to play for England again but first and foremost I want to play well for Sale and we\u2019ll see what happens after that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sharks Director of Rugby Alex Sanderson said: \u201cCourtney is the kind of player and person that suits this club. He\u2019s robust, dynamic around the park and he hits hard, but he has a fantastic skillset that means he\u2019s so much more than just a banger.<\/p>\n

\u201cRugby is a small world and if you\u2019re a good bloke, you work hard, you\u2019re honest, and bring energy to a club, that goes around and that\u2019s exactly what you hear about Courtney.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wants to bring people with him and lead from the front and I love that. Plus he\u2019s captained England and knows what it\u2019s like to play and win on the biggest stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t wait to see him train and play with us, but from a coaching perspective I\u2019m really looking forward to working with someone I\u2019ve heard so many good things about.<\/p>\n

\u201cCourtney believes in what we\u2019re doing and wants to be part of the club. He\u2019s coming back to try and win trophies and play international rugby again and he believes he can do that with us.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s another sign of the intent of the club and the passion and commitment of the owners to really put Sale on the map.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sale Sharks have agreed a deal to sign England and British and Irish Lions forward Courtney Lawes on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":517366,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[59,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-517365","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}