Enforcer Lawes has become England’s all-court superstar
Eddie Jones’ chief battering ram now also counts as one of his most versatile players
It is difficult to go under the radar when you stand 6ft 7in tall and weigh more than 18 stone, but if any member of this England side could be described as an unsung hero, it is Courtney Lawes.
Well, it is time to sing about him. The ability of this team to create space is one of the reasons they find themselves in a World Cup final and Lawes is a major factor in it. In the past, when you thought of Lawes, you probably pegged him for an enforcer – a Sebastien Chabal character, destroying and hunting in and around the breakdown, or hurtling into fly-halves and making his physical mark.
But under Eddie Jones, Courtney has gone all-court, even if this has not given him many personal plaudits. Against the All Blacks, Manu Tuilagi made headlines for his try scoring; Maro Itoje picked up the man of the match gong; the two young lads on the flanks lived up to their nickname of “kamikaze kids” and were heralded as world beaters. Yet it was the work of players such as Lawes which made all these eye-catching exploits possible.
The first try is probably the best example of how Lawes and England can mix skills with muscle, pace with strong-arm tactics. Watch it back and look at the passage of play just after kick-off when Tuilagi crashes up and wins a strong gain-line. Elliot Daly then drifts down a pass, beats Richie Mo’unga on the outside and elegantly shows why Jones has stuck with him at full-back. A missed tackle by New Zealand thanks to pace, zip and accuracy.
Anthony Watson wins extra yards and England are in behind. As the ball comes back, the Kiwis are narrow and England are scanning for gaps. The mindset is calm and they see space and go after it. Mako Vunipola and Kyle Sinckler, so often at the heart of England’s best work, are the first receivers who drag the ball back to their playmakers of George Ford and Owen Farrell, who are off and running and fizzing passes.
It goes wide to Jamie George, who has kept his width. He knows to trust the system and wait for the game to come back to him, not waste energy chasing the game, trying to get a first hit, carry or ruck.
George steps back off the touchline and wins more yards – helped by Brodie Retallick dropping his shoulder out of the way, showing that, perhaps, one of the finest players the world has seen was not fully fit after all. Then, to rub salt into the wound, Lawes, from the opposing engine room, appears and puts in a cameo that had me jumping out of my chair when I watched the game back on Sunday morning. As the ball is recycled quickly, Lawes heads towards the ruck from the right side on a corner-flag angle, running back against the grain.
He is a second row, an enforcer. And three years ago, there is only one thing he would have done; maintain that line, carry hard, make the opposition tackle him and be happy with a job well done.
But that is easy to defend against. You need something special if you are going to break a good defence and normally it would be the All Blacks who pull off the next touch. This time it is Lawes. As he approaches, he arcs his run to straighten up and get square on to the try line. This opens up his options. If you keep running back to the ruck and the defenders, then your support runners on the outside only see your back. They then tuck in behind and get ready for contact, which is exactly what the defenders do. When the hips are turned towards the ruck, the pass to the outside becomes a blind, hopeful ball.
It is much better when a player squares up and puts his shoulders and hips parallel with the try-line, not the touchline. This way, the support can stay in the close channels, can see the ball, can communicate better and can make a bigger impact.
The new Lawes squares up, ball in two hands and goes right to the gain line, so he can almost feel an opponent’s breath on his face, and flicks the ball to Sinckler. Suddenly, the opposition are on their heels and in the brace position.
It is a piece of absolute class – Lawes playing the All Blacks for suckers. After that, Sinckler does what we know he can: he has played fly-half as much as any actual 10 this tournament and here he is at it again, pirouetting, spinning and offloading to Ford, who has Mako Vunipola with him.
England are in behind again and there is genuine trouble in the New Zealand ranks. They have gone code red. By this time, Lawes, because he was able to square up and was balanced when he passed, manages to beat everyone around the corner and becomes the next carrier at the ruck under the posts.
This is when he becomes the old Lawes who has always been such a handful. Now is the time to batter down the door, to suck in as many All Blacks as possible, potentially score and if not – the worst case scenario – have a disjointed unconnected defensive line in front of you with players in the wrong position, hoping to defend against big men. Lawes thunders on, wins the gain line, and it requires three All Blacks to stop him. The fringes empty, Aaron Smith is left to do what he can against Tuilagi but it is not enough, and the centre crashes over.
It was a glorious moment for Tuilagi, but Lawes was the catalyst for the try. He played only 55 minutes against New Zealand but what a shift it was. The man who was only in the team to tackle and scare people a few years back, had more touches in the build-up to this try – he even won the line-out that started the whole thing – than anyone else and with a variety that far outweighed his half-backs.
The soft, deft touch and pop after changing his angle of run, understanding that a hard carry would kill the momentum, and then the sledgehammer carry to create the chance shows what an all-rounder he has become.
Lawes was everywhere when he was on that pitch, with an ability to do exactly what the situation required. If ever you wanted a pin-up for Eddie Jones and his team’s ability to find space against a tough Springbok side, or proof of England’s ability to play whatever is in front of them, heads up, brains on, then Big Courtney is your man.