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Courtney Lawes hailed as best in the world behind Antoine Dupont
By Josh Raisey
Courtney Lawes may have retired from international rugby, but he showed against Leinster on Saturday in the Investec Champions Cup semi-final that he is every bit as capable of still playing at that standard, as he has done all season for Northampton Saints.
In a match that was effectively a Test match in every way but its name, the former England flanker shone, producing the most turnovers in the contest alongside 18 tackles.
Stats like that will not come as a surprise to anyone who has watched Lawes this season, who, even in the twilight years of his career, is playing some of his best rugby. That form has resulted in a nomination for European player of the year.
Such is the 35-year-old's level at the moment that his teammate, and fellow player of the year nominee, Fin Smith thinks there is only one player better than him on Earth currently, Antoine Dupont.
As a guest on The Rugby Pod this week, the England fly-half discussed the loss to Leinster, while singling out the performance of Lawes, who is nearing the end of his 17-year association with Northampton before joining Brive next season.
"How good was he?" the 21-year-old said.
"He was so good. I think that's why it was even more gutting afterwards. He's leaving the club in such a good spot, and playing as well as he did, we couldn't quite do it for him. Genuinely, I think it wouldn't be outrageous to say he's the best, if not just a close second after [Antoine] Dupont, players in the world this season, he's been that good for us."
Smith also gave an insight into Lawes' leadership qualities, and how he rallied the team at halftime at Croke Park. The Saints were trailing 15-3 at the break in Dublin, but were within touching distance of the final come the end of the match, narrowly falling 20-17.
"The main one was Courtney," Smith said.
"Courtney pulled us in and said 'lads, I don't know if you've realised it, but these lot aren't way better than us,' like we may have built it up in our heads a little bit.
"He was like 'we can properly go out and win this, regardless of the score. They're going to find it hard to live with us."
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Latest Comments
They also use a far more consistent scale.
Rugby pass seem to have a different scale for each player based on the authors expectations or how much he likes them.
Can't fathom how Moodie and Reece both were a 3.
Go to commentsYes for sure, thanks for sharing. I fully understand that both parties are better off, no one needs to lose, neither competition suffers, in fact both can be better as a result.
Too many true rugby fans (and analysts) don't understand that.
I wouldn't imagine there is a date aye. It was a long decline rugby in SA and Australia was going through, and was so bad it even effected NZ, caused them to argue to can a couple of teams. The nation of SA probably grew into it? I know I watch more of the NH now specifically because of the SR teams playing there. I actually had to mention to Nick Bishop (because of his stubborn perspective) the other day that I've never been a fan of Super Rugby, I don't think they chose the right way to go about professionalism back in 1995. Unfortunately, NZR was stuck between a rock and a hard place, because it had SA's and Australians that ran their unions by States, so we had to separate into "two or three" teams as a result. Our game is in the kak now because of it, they want to kill off the lifeblood of our National Provincial Championship. But now we might see a way out of it, so it's all good.
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