PAUL REES SAYS THE FORMER ENGLAND CAPTAIN WHO HAS SIGNED FOR BRIVE WILL HAVE MUCH TO OFFER WHEN HE RETIRES
BRIVE will be delighted that they have persuaded Courtney Lawes to join them for one final hurrah in the club game.
Former England captain Lawes, who was torn between becoming a one-club man and remaining at Northampton or accepting a bigger offer and moving to France, announced on Friday that he will be leaving the Saints at the end of the season to join the Top 14 club.
Brive are signing one of the finest English players in the game as Lawes, who retired from international rugby after last year’s World Cup, may be in the twilight of his career but he is in prime form, his rugby brain masking the passing of time.
There are several reasons why Northampton went into the Premiership’s Six Nations break at the top of the table and Lawes, who started his career in the second row and is ending it in the back row, unusually, is one of them. A player who defined himself at the start of his career by his big hitting has become multi-dimensional, something he credits to the former England head coach Eddie Jones who quickly concluded that Lawes was not making anywhere near the most of his ability. The rest is history.
Northampton did everything they could to persuade Lawes to stay, but were handicapped by the salary cap. It is rising by £1.4m next season, but much of the increase will be taken up by wage increases. Two of the club’s players, Fraser Dingwall and Fin Smith, have won their first England caps this year, Elliot Millar Mills has made his Scotland debut, Alex Mitchell has become an England regular and Tommy Freeman has made his mark in the Six Nations.
As Saracens and Exeter have found, retention becomes harder when players who have come through the system become established inter nationals and join the top earners. Something has to give and the Saints were unable to trump the offer Lawes received from France.
Lawes has not cashed in on his true worth in the past because he wanted to keep playing for England. He considered becoming a former international after the 2019 World Cup, but the lure of reaching 100 caps proved too much and as the salary cap went down and clubs cut their wage bills during the pandemic, pursuing his dream cost him. But now, as the father of four, he has a responsibility to his family. He is 35 and it is 17 years since he made his debut for Northampton against Esher in the old National One.
Given the way he is playing, it is not difficult to see Lawes emulating those few forwards who have carried on playing through their 30s. A question he is already thinking about is what he does when his career comes to its end: it is one which should also work the minds of those running the game in England. When he started his career, Lawes was, like many young players then, uncomfortable being interviewed, as if
