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'We want him to be a 50-cap player': The England verdict on their axing of Ollie Lawrence
By Liam Heagney
Eddie Jones have predicted Ollie Lawrence can bounce back and become a 50-cap international despite England deciding to drop the 21-year-old midfielder from their team for this Saturday's Guinness Six Nations clash with Italy.
Lawrence was the backline fall guy when Jones sat down his with assistants to pick the England team for round two following their shock round one loss to Scotland last weekend. Having been positioned at outside centre in his two previous starts, the Worcester centre was chosen to play at No12 against the Scots.
However, he was unable to get involved in a game where England kicked away the majority of possession they had in the 11-6 loss and it has now resulted in Jones opting to move Owen Farrell back out to No12 and start George Ford this week at out-half.
The coach, though, claimed the demotion would be a long-term positive for Lawrence's career rather than a negative that will cause it serious harm after only four caps.
Asked what his conversation had been like with Lawrence when he told the youngster he would not be involved against the Italians, Jones replied: "I don't think that would be very fair because that is a private conversation... that is between Ollie and I but every young player is in a hurry.
"With the internet and the way life is run now, everyone is in a hurry but being a great player there are some times where you don't get exactly what you want at that particular time and he understands there are areas of the game he needs to improve and his diligence to go away and work on that will be the test of his resilience.
"Every selection is a combination of personnel and tactics. It was a difficult game for Ollie. He had very few opportunities in attack and not much to do in defence, but there are areas of his game that we want him to work on. There are areas of his development we want him to go work on because we want him to go be a 50-cap player and that is what we are trying to develop with him."
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Latest Comments
No he's just limited in what he can do. Like Scott Robertson. And Eddie Jones.
Sometimes it doesn't work out so you have to go looking for another national coach who supports his country and believes in what he is doing. Like NZ replacing Ian Foster. And South Africa bringing Erasmus back in to over see Neinbar.
This is the real world. Not the fantasy oh you don't need passion for your country for international rugby. Ask a kiwi, or a south african or a frenchman.
Go to commentsDont complain too much or start jumping to conclusions.
Here in NZ commentators have been blabbing that our bottom pathway competition the NPC (provincial teams only like Taranaki, Wellington etc)is not fit for purpose ie supplying players to Super rugby level then they started blabbing that our Super Rugby comp (combined provincial unions making up, Crusaders, Hurricanes, etc) wasn't good enough without the South African teams and for the style SA and the northern powers play at test level.
Here is what I reckon, Our comps are good enough for how WE want to play rugby not how Ireland, SA, England etc play. Our comps are high tempo, more rucks, mauls, running plays, kicks in play, returns, in a game than most YES alot of repetition but that builds attacking skillsets and mindsets. I don't want to see world teams all play the same they all have their own identity and style as do England (we were scared with all this kind of talk when they came here) World powerhouse for a reason, losses this year have been by the tiniest of margins and could have gone either way in alot of games. Built around forward power and blitz defence they have got a great attack Wingers are chosen for their Xfactor now not can they chase up and unders all day. Stick to your guns its not far off
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