Lawes: 'If it wasn't Owen Farrell there wouldn't be as much uproar'

Courtney Lawes was at his teammate’s side with his insistence that there is no malice with Farrell who is ‘not trying to get it wrong or hurt people’, but is simply a ‘fierce competitor’ trying his best in an environment where things happen in splits of a second.

FIERCE COMPETITOR: Courtney Lawes was at his teammate’s side with his insistence that there is no malice with Farrell who is ‘not trying to get it wrong or hurt people’, but is simply a ‘fierce competitor’. Pic: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

Give a controversy enough time and room to breathe and the one inevitability is that it will spread like a fire, engulfing everything and anything in its path. The furore surrounding Owen Farrell this last week sits before us today as Exhibit A.

England’s out-half has been stood down for today’s game at the Aviva Stadium because of the heat, debate and disciplinary toing and froing generated in the wake of his red-card tackle against Wales seven days ago and the disruption and intrusion it all caused.

England coach Steve Borthwick has decried what he termed ‘personal attacks’ on the player that have steered away from the incident itself and the health and safety debate it has spawned. Andy Farrell has criticised the “circus” that has enveloped his son.

Neither offered specific examples of anyone ‘playing the man and not the ball’ but Courtney Lawes, England’s captain for this World Cup warm-up, has bought equal shares in the concept that much of the chatter has been fed by the identity of the man at its centre.

“Yeah, I think it’s impossible to ignore it,” said the Northampton forward. “If it wasn’t him in this situation then there probably wouldn’t have been as much uproar. I don’t know exactly where that comes from. He’s one of the best players of our generation by a long shot.

“He’s maybe the best 10 ever for England and he proves it time and time again, however many caps he’s on and will continue to get. He’s just going to continue to push on with his legacy. When all the dust settles everyone will see that he’s deserving of every cap he’s got.”

We can’t know every comment or criticism levelled at the Saracens playmaker but it’s hardly to be unexpected that a player with his history when it comes to questionable tackling technique has faced negative press after his latest faux pas.

Here again Lawes was at his teammate’s side with his insistence that there is no malice with Farrell who is ‘not trying to get it wrong or hurt people’, but is simply a ‘fierce competitor’ trying his best in an environment where things happen in splits of a second.

“At the end of the day, he’s a good guy. He means the best for his team and the people he knows well. He’s a family man with a great wife and two kids to go home to. For me, that would be the most important thing.” 

It would be churlish to argue with that but what are such character references if not the flip side to the coin that Borthwick, Farrell Snr and Lawes himself have railed against? It’s the player’s actions and the appropriate consequences that should be the focus here, no?

How the man himself is dealing with the cloud that continues to hang over his head now that World Rugby have appealed the original disciplinary decision to rescind his red card won’t be known until he re-emerges before the media again.

Lawes didn’t seem to harbour any fears in that regard as he painted the picture of a resilient character who has, after all, spent 15 years in the limelight now for club and country having emerged with ease from the enormous shadow cast by his famous father.

He will be conspicuous by his absence come kick-off this evening and if there is a tendency at times like this to suspect that perceived slights and wrongs can invigorate a dressing-room then a World Cup warm-up is hardly the place to bring fire and brimstone.

Lawes suggested as much while admitting that some of his teammates, Ellis Genge among them, have been tapping in to a type of siege mentality but England need to be mindful too of their recent experiences against Ireland.

Their last visit to Dublin was compromised by the loss to another red card of Freddie Steward midway through the game and Ireland’s win in Twickenham a year before was helped by the dismissal of Charlie Ewels just two minutes after the first whistle.

Last week’s win against Wales in London came despite Farrell’s yellow being upgraded to red and three other sinbin visits, for Genge, Steward and Harry Arundell. They were down to just 12 men at one point during the 19-17 win.

“To an extent, you’ve got to accept them,” said Lawes. “It’s not like you’re ever going to get through a season… No matter how much you talk about discipline, you’re never going to get through a season, or rarely a game nowadays, without seeing a card.

“It is one of those things but to the best of your ability you’ve got to be streetwise, you’ve got to be smart. Even in those split seconds you’ve got to have a cool head and you’ve got to be able to hopefully make the right decision at the right time.”