England captain Lawes happy players are sidelined to be safe over head knocks
England rugby captain Courtney Lawes has said the high injury toll in the Test series against the Wallabies is unfortunate, but the sidelining of concussed players proves the game has progressed.
Both England and Australia have suffered multiple injuries across their first two Tests, with a number of players getting head knocks.
Asked if he was alarmed by the high injury toll, Lawes said: "Quite a lot of them have been from head knocks.
"It shows the progression of the game, where if you picked up a head knock this time last year, you'd be all right to play for this next Test.
"I think it's better safe than sorry and if you pick up a head knock in a game then you should have the time you need to recover from it, so I see it as a good thing.
"There's been plenty of other pretty serious injuries, especially on their side, which is tough and very unfortunate to see to be honest.
"But it is the nature of the game at this point because there's so many good athletes, there's so many big collisions and it's a tough sport.
"I don't think you can trouble yourself with it too much.
"We play a tough physical game and we all know what we signed up for, and a lot of it is effectively down to luck.
"People catching a ball and coming down awkwardly, getting landed on and stuff like that, it's bad luck and, unfortunately, it happens."
Lawes, who played at blindside flanker for the first two Tests, said coach Eddie Jones had not suggested he switch to the second row for Saturday's SCG decider, after lock Maro Itoje was ruled out with concussion.
A knee injury to Cadeyrn Neville and Darcy Swain's suspension have depleted Australia's lock stocks, with Lukhan Salakaia-Loto called into the squad.
Salakaia-Loto and Lawes will soon be teammates in England when the 30-cap Wallabies forward joins the England skipper's club, Northampton Saints.
Lawes and the other Saints members of the touring party had a coffee with Salakaia-Loto last week before he was drafted into the Wallabies squad.
"All I know is he's massive, so I'm going to try and avoid running straight into him," Lawes said .
Both men played in the 2019 World Cup quarter-final won by England, though starter Lawes was replaced five minutes before Salakaia-Loto came off the bench.
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Ford completely took the energy out the game for us, waving his hands telling people to calm down. Just for us to die off and lose the momentum.
Bringing him on all the time to ‘close out’ games is condescending to Smith. Get Ford out and let Marcus Smith & Fin Smith run the show. The future is them so give them the keys and let them get on with it.
Go to commentsTaking Marcus Smith off was a big puzzle and probably cost England the game. However, Abs created more opportunities and scored some tries but left a lot out there through sloppy execution, not playing to the ref and no enforcement of English off-side play. The fact the game was close all through made it worth watching but it was a frustrating pectacle. English succeeded in slowing the game down and were in the refs ear which Gardner allowed. I think Ireland or France will punish the sloppy execution more than England so still much for ABs to work on.
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