{"id":1183366,"date":"2026-09-03T00:30:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T00:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1183366\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T00:30:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T00:30:22","slug":"id-be-surprised-united-message-emerges-at-sale-over-courtney-lawes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1183366\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I’d be surprised’: United message emerges at Sale over Courtney Lawes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sale Sharks<\/a> director of rugby Alex Sanderson has backed Courtney Lawes to force his way back into the England<\/a> squad this autumn after being hugely impressed by the veteran forward since his return to English rugby.<\/p>\n

Lawes stepped away from the international game following the 2023 World Cup before joining Brive<\/a> in 2024. But he is back in the Gallagher PREM now and has outlined his ambition to don the white jersey he has worn 105 times with the World Cup on the horizon, and Sanderson believes the 37-year-old remains capable of operating at Test level, insisting he \u201ccan\u2019t see him not making the squad\u201d if Steve Borthwick opens the door to a comeback.<\/p>\n

The former England captain has quickly made an impression on his new team-mates as well. Tom Curry has described Lawes as being physically \u201cthe same, if not better\u201d, while highlighting the calming influence and experience he has brought to the group.<\/p>\n

George Ford has been similarly struck by Lawes\u2019 condition and consistency in training, saying the forward has not missed a session and barely makes an error. The fly-half believes that reliability, allied with Lawes\u2019 ability to simplify situations as a leader, is characteristic of the very best players.<\/p>\n

Despite an abundance of back-row options, Lawes\u2019 return to English rugby has come at an opportune time. Not only are Borthwick\u2019s side experiencing a blip in their World Cup cycle, but the coach has also made the tactical shift towards fielding a bigger blindside flanker \u2013 a profile that suits Lawes perfectly.<\/p>\n

Fixture<\/p>\n

Gallagher Premiership<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Sale <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Bristol <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI swear he grows an inch every time I see him,\u201d Sanderson said at the PREM launch at Twickenham\u2019s Allianz Stadium. \u201cAnd this is as much about his presence as it is about physical size. He\u2019s so grounded. He\u2019s the kind of bloke that I want to grow to be. I have a conversation and I\u2019ve come away from that probably taking more than what he has when I\u2019m trying to coach him.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I\u2019ve been hugely impressed, not just by that, but his altruistic nature. He\u2019s there for the group, not for himself. And moreover, he\u2019s coming in to play in the last World Cup, and it might be about picking and choosing. There\u2019s been none of that. He\u2019s all in. We have to pull him back rather than raise him up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do [back him to play for England this autumn]. I\u2019m ridiculously biased to my players. That\u2019s all I\u2019ve been looking at, so I\u2019ll be positive. I\u2019d be surprised if he isn\u2019t. The way he\u2019s moving, the way he\u2019s talking, I\u2019ve had experience of other people of his calibre \u2013 Maro, for example \u2013 I can\u2019t see him not making the squad. It\u2019s probably on us playing well as a group and that will give him the platform.\u201d<\/p>\n

Curry, who has lined up alongside Lawes in the back row on many occasions for both England and the British and Irish Lions, speaks like a man who does not expect to be playing alongside him solely in Sale<\/a> colours next season. He said: \u201cWe had a good week last week. You see him as a person, but also physically as a player, and he\u2019s still the same, if not better. He\u2019s more diligent, and even chatting to him about certain bits around the breakdown, just the way he speaks and his experiences will be really cool. So, yeah, the first weekend has been pretty special.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s great because you don\u2019t see someone six-foot-whatever who\u2019s got the skill set of a five-foot-nine person. You can\u2019t really pigeonhole him into this sort of category because he\u2019s just great at everything.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think, going beyond that, the biggest thing is how much of a calming influence he is. He\u2019s very level-headed, and his ability to just be consistent and stay at that sort of level is great.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s probably what we needed. As a club, we ride high, so to have someone who\u2019s able to bring that is going to be exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ford added: \u201cObviously, he\u2019s been away for a couple of years with Brive. But from what I\u2019ve seen in training, the Courtney of what you saw when he was playing his best at England, his physicality, the size of him and the impacts he has in the physical side of the game is huge.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut he looks fit. He looks like he\u2019s moving well. He\u2019s not missed a session. He looks running fit. His skills are always unbelievable. The one thing I would say, and I said this last week, he just doesn\u2019t make mistakes in training, just doesn\u2019t make any errors. You\u2019ll go from session to session, day to day and he won\u2019t make one error.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think that\u2019s what the best players in the world do. They\u2019re just consistently really, really good at that. So that\u2019s him as an individual. I think what else he\u2019s brought, he\u2019s got loads of experience with him, but he just manages to sum things up in very few words from a leadership perspective, which cuts all the rubbish out sometimes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s invaluable to us really. He\u2019s almost, \u2018This is how it is, let\u2019s go and do it,\u2019 and just simplifying that process from a leadership perspective. So it\u2019s great to have him back.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sale Sharks director of rugby Alex Sanderson has backed Courtney Lawes to force his way back into the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":932668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4102],"tags":[4151,79,16,15],"class_list":["post-1183366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117204291501152756","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1183366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/932668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1183366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1183366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1183366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}