England star Lawes to retire after Rugby World Cup as defiant prediction made
Rugby World Cup: Semi-final previews
Courtney Lawes says the heroic failure of the last-gasp World Cup semi-final defeat to South Africa shows the future is once again bright for England – only that future will not involve him. The 34-year-old flanker announced afterwards that he will retire from international rugby at the end of this tournament and with England expected to ring the changes for Friday’s third-place play-off match against Argentina, his 105th cap could well be his last.
It brings the curtain down on a 14-year career with England which took a stringy kid from Northampton Old Scouts to the summit of the world game.
“This was my last World Cup. The kids are at that age where they need their dad around. It will be good to be with them more, to provide some well needed structure to the mob,” said the father-of-four. “I think it’s time. I’ve done four World Cups, so I’m pretty happy with that.
”It’s a bit of an end of an era, but it’s been a real honour for me to represent England for so long. I think, as hard as it is being away from your family, you almost have another family. You really feel like that, especially when you’re away in camps like World Cup camps. It’s five months, staying with your brothers.
“To be able to finish with this group, it’s something I’ll treasure forever. When you come up against teams like South Africa, where everyone thinks you’re going to get slaughtered, and you find another level for each other. You can see what it really means for us to play for each other. So I’ll miss this group of boys specifically.”
Calling time is never easy – and Lawes hadn’t actually told his coach Steve Borthwick when he shared his news with the wider world in the early hours of Sunday morning at the Stade de France – but he drew comfort from the fact he is walking away with the clouds over England having lifted.
They may have gone down 16-15 to the world champions but it was their best performance under Steve Borthwick by a distance. “I think people can see now what a good coach he is – and where this team can really go,” said Lawes. “We’ve got some young lads, like George Martin, who played such a good game. It’s an opportunity to go on and move forward.”
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Some of Lawes’s contemporaries may go on through until the Six Nations but there will be an inevitable changing of the guard as Borthwick looks to the next World Cup cycle. Dan Cole and Danny Care are 36, Joe Marler and Jonny May are 33.
They would all have dreamed of a fairytale final World Cup for England – and how agonisingly close they got to a shot at New Zealand and the trophy next Saturday – but from where the side have come they can walk away with heads held high.
Top-level sport is not always fair, a long career teaches you that, but it provides moments – even in defeat – when teammates can look each other in the eye and know they have emptied themselves for each other and for their country.
On a sodden night of so-nearlys at the Stade de France when Borthwick’s men took the World’s No 1 side to the precipice, English rugby should have been proud of the lot of them.
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