Change was good move for Saints says Lawes
HARD-HITTING lock Courtney Lawes says Northampton must rediscover their lost sense of direction as a new coaching era beds in at Franklin’s Gardens under Chris Boyd.
Lawes spent most of his Saints career working for Jim Mallinder and Dorian West before the former was fired last December and West left at the end of last season.
The 29-year-old Lawes might be forgiven for feeling sentimental about the demise of the bosses he served for over ten years. However, England and British & Irish Lions enforcer Lawes told The
Rugby Paper: “It’s definitely a new era and I kind of just roll with the punches.
“Jim and Dorian arrived the same time I did in 2007 so I spent a good few, enjoyable years with them, but rugby’s one of those games that goes in cycles and while we had some big peaks, we came down from them and struggled so it was the right time for a change.
“It got to a point where players and coaches and everything were pulling in different directions and if you don’t have that right, or as close to right as it possibly can be, then you’re going to struggle in a league full of good clubs like the Premiership, which is what happened.
“It’s how you learn from that and get better that counts and, having made the changes, it’s now good to have new players and coaches, with new opinions and ideas. You can get the most out of situations like this, especially if everyone’s heading in the right direction.”
Lawes welcomes the appointment of Phil Dowson as forwards coach and dismisses any notion that the former Saints flanker might struggle to earn the respect of ex-playing colleagues.
“I don’t think he’ll find the transition difficult at all,” Lawes said. “He’s certainly not having any problems here and everyone respects him to the absolute utmost.
“I played with him for plenty of years but now I see him as a coach – and he’s a brilliant coach and a great, passionate talker who knows how to get his points across.
“You don’t come across many people who can do it as well as him and with Matt Ferguson bringing a great level of detail to our scrum, there’s been a vast improvement. Hopefully, we’ll now grow as a team and everyone will continue being on the same page.”
Lawes missed the final three months of Saints’ disappointing last campaign after suffering medial ligament damage during England’s Six Nations clash against France.
However, he returned to action against the Dragons last weekend and claims to be fitter, faster and stronger as a huge season for club and country beckons.
Lawes explained: “Picking up any injury is disappointing, but the season was pretty much finished for Saints and it was actually quite nice to get a chance to rest.
“In the lead-up to the Lions tour last year I’d played right through with Northampton and England, and then it was the same when I came back from New Zealand.
“I played pretty much every game up to my injury against France and was tired after one of those seasons where injuries meant there wasn’t much rotation.
“You’re paid to play and I get on with it, but the injury has allowed me to refresh mentally and I’ve been in the gym a lot getting fitter, faster and stronger.
“My weight usually varies between 113kgs (17st 8lbs) and 116kgs (18st 3lbs), but I’m a bit bigger now at just over 116kgs and I’ve done plenty of work on my running technique. It was good to get out there against Dragons and I’m ready for a big season.”
England boss Eddie Jones will need tough-tackling Lawes to be fully fit and firing for the daunting November challenge from world champions New Zealand.
Lawes, who watched the 2-1 summer series defeat to South Africa from his sofa, added: “We started each game well, but what came after that in the first two Tests in terms of our penalty count was a big part of our discussions at the recent training camp.
“If we can crack down on that we’ll be a lot better and there’s a lot of optimism that we can build on the last win in Cape Town and crack on this autumn.
“There’s huge motivation to get into that side to face New Zealand, but club comes first and there’s a lot of rugby to be played before we get together. At Saints we want win games by playing good, attacking rugby and we’re in a good place to do it.”