HIS SECOND-HALF SUBSTITUTION during today’s game against the Hurricanes suggests that Courtney Lawes will have some involvement in this weekend’s clash with New Zealand, and the English lock insists he’ll be ready if called upon by British & Irish Lions head coach Warren Gatland.
The injured Robbie Henshaw had to be replaced by Leigh Halfpenny in the 20th minute of this morning’s 31-31 draw, while Finn Russell temporarily deputised for Dan Biggar early in the second half while the Welsh out-half underwent a head injury assessment.
With those exceptions, Lawes was the only player to be called ashore by Gatland. The Northampton Saints man delivered a positive display in the second row alongside Ireland’s Iain Henderson, who was also impressive despite being sin-binned in the 66th minute for a tip-tackle on Jordi Barrett.
Afterwards, Gatland admitted that both Lawes and Henderson have given him food for thought ahead of Saturday’s second Test against the All Blacks back at the Westpac Stadium.
“Chuffed to hear that,” said Lawes, when made aware of Gatland’s comments. “You always want to be pushing for spots. Hendo had an awesome game and I was able to have a good game too. You always want to make coach’s life harder than it should be.”
Should he be involved on Saturday against the world champions, Lawes is likely to come up against the formidable second-row partnership of Brodie Retallick and Sam Whitelock. However, he’s confident it’s an area in which the Lions can compete.
“Of course you can contain them,” Lawes said. “You’ve just got to tackle them. You’ve got to spot the runners and make sure you’re in the right position to make a dominant hit.”
When asked if being substituted was a good sign for his Test hopes, Lawes said: “I’ve no idea. We’ll just see what happens. I went out and did everything I could. It’s not up to me anymore. I played fairly well today. I’ll be looking forward to it if I get a run-out at the weekend.”
He added: “With Eddie [Jones, England head coach], we have a pretty hard regime and played some pretty tough tests. So I’m ready. It’ll be a quick game but that’s what we want. We want to be out there against the best.
“I am feeling confident if I do get called up. I’ll lay it on the line like I always do.”
I am sure playing a full 80 minutes 4 days before a test match will not help his cause.
@ktsiwot: taken off after 50mins I’m sure…..looks like he’s getting the nod for the weekend alright, Henderson def make the 23 at least….
@Now or Never: was referring to Peter Finnegan post below on Henderson, my fault should have hit the reply button to him.
@ktsiwot: sure look at Williams and Daly last week! Didn’t hurt them!
Henderson must be the best second row in Ireland now, and I would have no problems if gartand picked both him and lawes to be in the 23 on Saturday kruis had a bad day last sat and wasn’t that impressive this morning I think gatland put kruis on for lawes to see if he’d be able to show his top form but it wasn’t there
@Peter Finnegan: I hope he’ll stay in the 2nd row for Ulster. If they keep putting him at 6 then his international career will suffer.
@Gary: definitely. He has shown on this tour that when he gets a run of games at lock he is a top class operator. However, when he doesn’t, he can get caught cold, as the Scotland game showed this year. Fingers crossed Ulster give him a run.
@Peter Finnegan: Kruis and AWJ were ineffective at the breakdown. Should be Henderson and Lawes to start because they have combined well in the Mid week team and Maro to cover for fatigue and Lawes previous HIAs. With Rory to hooker. Lions needs those forwards who are best at competing the breakdown. The ABs focus on the breakdown first.
@Christiaan Theron: Rory best doesn’t deserve a place when Jamie George has been so good. Just putting players in to fix the breakdown won’t do u anything. Lineout is an important aspect too, and Best hasn’t been great there. (I can see see why Gatland would possibly put him in though)
@Christiaan Theron: I agree with all use have said awj is no good atm we need excellent line out operators and breakdown and open field specialists atm I would start hendo and lawes and have maro as impact I think he suits that better. As for hendo at ulster, he really should get more games in the second row and hopefully either les sees the sense or jono takes in his own hands because we could have hendo in the second row, sell on one or so second rows and invest in a top class back row to go with Reidy and Marcel
@Peter Finnegan: a bad day? He had a shocker. As did Jamie George btw
@Nathan Mawhinney: Do you understand that the AB prioritize the Breakdown first and Foremost? NH team prioritise the set Piece. Now who is the best team in the World?
@Christiaan Theron: that’s not the golden answer bro lol. There’s a lot more reasons to why they’re the best.
@Gary: Supposedly Henderson is insistent that it’s his best position. He needs to be sat down and have it drilled into him that he’s a lock. God save us from a repeat of the “Keith Earls is actually a centre” saga.
@Nathan Mawhinney: You do understand that you if don’t win the breakdown you dont get possession. Without possession you don’t score points. Whether you kick those points or score tries is irrelevant.
@Christiaan Theron: that’s it….if we sort out the breakdown, we’ll beat them. U can have all the possession u want against the All Blacks and they’ll still beat u. How u beat them is finishing every chance your given and scoring.Basically being clinical and creative.(Not trying to say the breakdown isn’t key, you’re right there, but there’s a lot more to it then that.)
@Nathan Mawhinney: The point I am making is that it starts with the breakdown. The Lions did not dominate it on the 1st Test so the AB counter attacked. The Lions need to dominate possession to create pressure and mistakes within the AB as well as give themselves a chance of scoring. Rugby is about pressure on and off the ball but possession is key. You don’t score without it. Possession for AB begins and ends at the breakdown and that they learned from the play the ball in Rugby league. The AB are not the best in the world for no reason. The best attacking coach in the UK in any code is Darryl Powell at Castleford. Just watch what they do at the breakdown sorry Freudian slip play the ball.