LAWES: ENGLAND CAN’T BE COMPLACENT
COURTNEY LAWES insists England need to harness a collective sense of ‘fear’ despite facing Six Nations whipping boys Italy today.
The dire nature of their nonperformance in their first home defeat to Scotland in 38 years has led to an uncomfortable week of soul-searching and selection changes for Eddie Jones and his men. Italy’s young line-up will be there for the taking at Twickenham but Lawes, who has been restored to the starting XV at blindside flanker, says the hosts can’t afford to be complacent. ‘We’ve got to have a bit of fear,’ he said. ‘It’s not going to be hard to generate that coming off the loss to Scotland, so at least we’ve got that to be thankful for. ‘Italy are not going to roll over. You just don’t get easy matches in rugby any more. We’ll embrace it and get a bit of fear about us because we need that. We need to be a bit nervous going into the game and then hopefully we can reach somewhere near our potential.’
If England do scale such heights today, then pity the Italians for having to hurl themselves into the path of a juggernaut. The hosts must avoid a repeat of last week’s myriad disciplinary lapses, but they must also create a platform to play off, by reviving the intensity and dominance up front which was so absent against the Scots. Asked if he is expecting an angry forward onslaught, Lawes said: ‘I wouldn’t say angry. With some of the people in the pack, we’ve got enough aggression and people who will be chomping at the bit. We certainly want control. We can’t have a penalty count like we did last week. We want an edge to us, for sure. That’s what our pack’s built on. We want to have a bit of bite. But we need control.’
Italy coach Franco Smith has assembled a raw squad full of potential but not enough pedigree to trouble England. They will miss the thunderous Gloucester flanker, Jake Polledri, who would ordinarily expect to provide precious momentum.