England Player Profiles

Courtney Lawes

Statistics

Squad	Northampton Saints
Position	Lock/Flanker
Age	22
Height	2m (6'7")
Weight	111kg (17st 6lb)
Caps	13

Just like England luminaries Ben Cohen and Steve Thompson, Courtney Lawes graduated to Northampton Saints from the Northampton Old Scouts’ rugby club that was founded in 1926 by scouts around a camp fire at Castle Ashby.

Little did Courtney imagine then that he would become the 2010 Investec Man of the Series, having started all four matches. A few weeks later, he sustained medial ligament damage to his right knee in an Aviva Premiership match against Leicester Tigers at Welford Road. He returned to action in late February in the Gloucester game at Franklin’s Gardens.

After swiftly taking his total of Test caps to 11 in England’s opening game of the 2011 RWC against Argentina in Dunedin, he was suspended for two matches, having been found guilty of striking an opponent. He returned for the final pool game against Scotland.

Courtney was raised only a punt away from Franklin’s Gardens, the home of the Saints, and is relishing a career that gathered momentum with a cap against Australia in November 2009. He won others against Scotland in March 2010 and Australia at Perth that June before his first starts against the Wallabies in the 21-10 victory at Sydney and against the All Blacks at Twickenham.

Something equally memorable was to follow when he took a blind side pass from Ben Youngs against Australia and sent away Chris Ashton on the 85 metre sprint to the Australia line that projected England into a 26-6 lead in the 35-18 victory at Twickenham in November 2010.

A towering forward with athleticism to match, he rocketed into the club’s senior side in January 2009 with a man-of-the-match display against Montpellier while still a member of the senior academy. His Premiership debut followed a fortnight later off the bench against Harlequins.

A National One appearance against Esher in 2007-08 was his first team baptism and illustrated his qualities as a quick learner. He took up the game only nine years ago, started thinking about rugby seriously when he was 16 and was the only member of the England U20 squad that reached the final of the IRB Junior World Championship in Japan in June 2009 to be chosen for the Saxons’ squad the following month.

Further promotion followed to the England Elite Squad the following autumn after Nick Easter was injured. Courtney said after his Saxons’ selection: “I was not expecting it. I have had a lot of congratulations but I am going to keep my head down and work hard.” He has done just that and made 88 appearances for the Saints in four and a half seasons to mid January this year.

Dorian West, the forwards’ coach at Northampton and a former England hooker, added: “Looking back, with the amount of game time he has had in our first team and for England, it is easy to forget he entered our senior academy only five years ago."

Courtney, who was educated at Moulton College, had toured Australia with England U18 in 2007, missed the 2008 U20 Six Nations Championship through injury but figured in the 2009 tournament before continuing to produce commanding performances at blind side flanker and lock in both the Premiership and Amlin Challenge Cup.