LONG ARM OF THE LAWES
Saints star fires Leinster warning
COURTNEY LAWES has warned favourites Leinster his Northampton side are not finished in Europe ahead of their semi-final clash.
Saints set up a last-four Champions Cup match-up with the fourtimes winners with their nine-try 59-22 win over Bulls on Saturday.
The game in three weeks’ time will be played at the 82,300-capacity Croke Park, in Dublin, with Leinster odds-on to reach their eighth final.
But Saints are unbeaten in the tournament – with wins over Glasgow,
Toulon, Munster twice, Bayonne and now the
Bulls – and they have come on a ton in the last season.
England new boy Fin Smith ran the show from fly-half at the weekend and Lawes told
Leinster there are more where he came from.
Lawes said: “He is a class player but we have got a ton of class players and we are showing that. I just want us to be confident moving forward.
“We have proved we can beat the best teams in the world as long as we get our game on the park. We are hungry to improve and we are not done yet.
“Against the Bulls we were able to address our issues, solve them and get on with the game. It shows the growth in the team.”
Lawes and prop Alex Waller are the only survivors from 2011 when Northampton reached their last Champions Cup semi-final.
Then they beat Perpignan to make the
Cardiff final where they led 22-3 before being reeled in by a Johnny Sexton-inspired Leinster to lose 33-22.
Lawes is moving to Brive, in France’s Top 14, next season and Waller is hanging up his boots for good after 15 years at Northampton.
Lawes is desperate to sign off with a trophy and showed it as he shrugged off a back spasm to play a leading role, as captain, in Saturday’s win over a weakened South African side.
Boss Phil Dowson added: “It was a massive doubt. We had Lewis Ludlam in line to pick it up and I was watching it quite closely in the warm-up.
“Courtney is very experienced and very honest so at the end of the warm-up I said, ‘Are you all right?’ and he was, ‘Yep, I am all right’.”
Northampton were boosted for the end-ofseason run-in by the return of George Furbank, off the bench after an hour, for his first action since the Six Nations.
The full-back suffered a calf injury in England’s final match against France.