Lennie Newman has kept a copy of Courtney Lawes’ first professional contract with Northampton Saints. It was worth £8,000, plus first-team appearance fees. Lodging was included, and Lawes and other academy colleagues also received free meat through a sponsor.
Whatever the lanky teenager ate, the deal represented a bargain. Newman, a former Saint who took on the role of team manager and has since become a regular on BBC Radio Northampton, was even forced into an awkward family interaction by his desire to tie down Lawes.
“The irony is that I had to let my own son go because Courtney was such a star,” Newman recalls. “My boy, Joe, who had sat in the second row with Courtney during a very successful academy side, was only 6ft tall with his long studs in. Courtney was 6 feet tall. That was an interesting one: ‘Sorry son, you’re not going any further, we’re going to take Courtney with us.’
Almost 20 years later, Lawes is on the eve of his final appearance at Northampton before embarking on a lucrative sunset spell with Brive in France’s second division. Befitting a phenomenal career with the Saints, he will line up against Bath in a Premiership final at Twickenham.
Whatever the outcome, Lawes will establish himself as a bona fide great of the English game, with his story defined by a remarkable evolution from raw athlete to versatile craftsman. Even at the age of 35, a season that started with a fantastic World Cup – he was arguably the best winger at the tournament until Pieter-Steph du Toit’s performance in the final – has left supporters wanting more.
Indeed, in a business where legacy can seem like a frothy concept, it feels like Lawes is leaving one with multiple threads.
Replacing a ‘unicorn’
The daunting task of replacing Lawes at Saints is a transactional way of measuring his status. Paul Shields started in a 74-10 win over Esher in 2007, which earned Lawes’ first-team debut in October 2007, the same day of that year’s World Cup final between England and South Africa. Shields and Lawes share adjacent club numbers; the first as Saint number 1,852 and the last as 1,853.
“I knew Courtney since before the tattoos,” says Shields, who arrived in the East Midlands from Ulster for Northampton’s campaign in National One. He is now head of recruitment and retention at Franklin’s Gardens, which left him tasked with filling a significant hole in the Saints squad once Lawes opted to cross the Channel.
“The first thing you have to do is realize that you can’t replace it,” Shields explains. ‘He is one of a kind. He is unique.”
The Academy’s production and rough diamond cutting provided the basis for Northampton’s recruitment, which is being carried out in conjunction with Phil Dowson’s coaching team. Josh Kemeny, a two-cap Wallaby signed from the Melbourne Rebels, and Archie Benson, a 6ft 1in backrower signed from Luctonians in the fourth tier, have been brought in. Shields insists he has “complete confidence that our coaches will improve players” and names Sam Graham, Tom James and James Ramm as success stories.
In a recent conversation between Shields and Joe Schmidt, the Australian head coach admitted he was “gutted” to lose Kemeny. England Under-20 star Henry Pollock will compete for playing time in the back row and there are high expectations for Angus Scott-Young and Tom Lockett.
“We feel very comfortable with what we have,” Shields added. “[But] to try to replace Courtney Lawes… I’m basically a unicorn hunter trying to find something that doesn’t exist.”
Lawes’ retirement from Test duty after the World Cup forced Steve Borthwick to confront this conundrum sooner. An abrasive operator with lineout expertise, Ethan Roots took on the blindside flanker position for the first three Six Nations matches before Ollie Chessum moved there to complement a lock pair of George Martin and Maro Itoje. Chandler Cunningham-South and Ted Hill are aiming to play in the future. Lawes has given them big boots thanks to his insatiable self-improvement.
A place in the pantheon of England
The memories of a young Lawes focus on raw athleticism that needed to be refined. Shields speaks of a dynamic split that came to naught in that thrashing of Esher on Lawes’ Northampton debut. Christian Day, an ally of the engine room at Northampton, points to a clattering tackle on Montpellier scrum-half Julien Tomas in 2009.
“At that game, everyone was asking, ‘Jesus, who is this freak of nature?’” Day says. “My job at Saints was to point him in the right direction. As someone who planned the strategy for the game and did the details, he was great to play with because he was a spectacular natural athlete.”
Day, the general secretary of the Rugby Players Association, recalls a play-off match in which Glen Jackson aimed relentlessly at Lawes from the restart. He contrasts that uncertainty with some towering shots from the Saints skipper during last Friday night’s semi-final. As Newman puts it, a 21-year-old Lawes “had a YouTube highlight reel longer than most players when they retire.” But he “realized he had to be more than Big Bosh Courtney Lawes.”
Broadly speaking, the trail of traits Lawes ticked off runs as follows in chronological order: offensive lineout jumping, dominant tackling, defensive lineout jumping, carrying and attacking skills, breakdown work. The latter was tightened after the 2019 World Cup, when Lawes left the second row of the grid. During that transition, he and Chris Boyd had a conversation. Lawes emphasized failed decision-making and promptly became ‘world class’ at it.
“If you described the perfect six, it is Courtney Lawes,” says the New Zealander. “He’s strong, he’s ruthless, he’s got a huge motor, he’s great in the air, he’s great on the ground. When he speaks, everyone hangs on his words.
“Courtney doesn’t really want to be a leader, but he is a leader because of what he brings. He is very smart at saying the right words at the right times, but also chooses not to say something. The other side of leadership is that actions speak louder than a thousand words. He is one of my favorite players of all time.”
Recent years, perhaps since the 2021 British and Irish Lions tour and then being named England captain for a while, have brought more respect. Before the World Cup semi-final last year, I spoke to a good friend. He was a keen Springboks supporter and said on the pitch, where Lawes was lengthening, ‘There he is, my man; the one I would include in my team. Lawes, whose right leg was virtually mummified, was brilliant on his 105th and final cap that evening despite the defeat.
England had no chance of emulating the class of 2003, who still had a special number six, when they lifted the Webb Ellis Trophy. Richard Hill clearly enjoyed seeing Lawes up close. The first presents line-out jumping as the first area in which the two differed as blindside flankers. Lawes’ longevity, Hill suggests, forced him to adapt in extraordinary ways.
“Whether it’s different, I don’t know, but he’s had a way of reinforcing himself in the tackle with those colossal hits,” Hill said. “I suppose the breakdown is different because it has evolved – the Jackal has become a big part of the game and he has become one of the standout people in it in recent years.”
A modern ambassador
The additional departures of Alex Waller, Alex Moon and Lewis Ludlam add emotional weight to Northampton’s bid to beat Bath. You sense that Lawes will leave a particularly lasting impression.
He came into contact with the sport in his mid-teens. A first trip to Franklin’s Gardens with his Uncle Pete was a few years earlier when he “had no idea what rugby was”. Ignorance was, in a way, bliss. Lawes admits that he did not let reverence keep him in check. His main thought when he joined the Northampton seniors was simply: “Who do I have to beat to get into this team?”
Now a father of four, Lawes, like himself, is said to be passionate about children at comprehensive schools being immersed in all sports. Conor O’Shea, executive director of performance at the Rugby Football Union, hopes Lawes will return from France to “influence the development of rugby” in England. He labels Lawes “a true legend of the game, on and off the field” who has helped “demonstrate the positive aspects of rugby to a diverse audience”. Newman, who has labeled Lawes the greatest saint ever and is backing him for a place on the 2025 Lions tour, echoed that sentiment.
“At first we thought he didn’t like rugby that much. He’s not someone who goes home to watch games. He prefers to be with his children. But he loves the sport and he is one of the best ambassadors you can get in this modern era.” Newman adds that Joe, his son and Lawes still “get along really well” if and when they meet. There apparently are no hard feelings about that contract.
“When we’re free, the first thing Courtney will do is draw a line to someone from his past,” Newman says. “That’s his mantra.” And what a rich history Lawes has written, as an illustrious chapter closes this weekend.