Ollie Lawrence has revealed he questioned why Eddie Jones was “on his case so much” when he was the England head coach but has since reached the conclusion the Australian’s home truths have been the making of him.
Lawrence won his first cap under Jones – who will face his former employers at Twickenham for the first time on Sunday when England host Japan – in 2020 but failed to make an impact on the international stage despite his fine form for Worcester.
Jones went on to criticise Lawrence’s attitude, writing in his book released in November 2021 that, “the way that some of the media raves about him you would think he’s already assured of becoming one of the best players in the world. He might do that, one day, but his attitude was not hungry or disciplined enough.”
The 25-year-old was not picked by Jones again but when Steve Borthwick took over Lawrence became a key part of his England side in the 2023 Six Nations and was named Premiership player of the year a few months later on the back of his fine form for Bath. This year he has started nine Tests in a row with Henry Slade in a demonstration of how integral both players have become under Borthwick.
Jones’s coaching methods have been questioned of late with Danny Care writing in his book of a toxic environment and comparing his regime to “living in a dictatorship”.
Lawrence said: “I’ll always be grateful to Eddie because he gave me my first cap playing for England. He’s one of those coaches, as we all know, that likes to challenge players. There was a point in my career where he challenged me on my attitude and whether I was working hard enough to warrant being in the squad and whether I was pushing myself enough in training.
“At the time you can look at it and be frustrated and be: ‘Oh, the boss isn’t on my side here,’ and look at it in that regard and probably back then I was probably a bit annoyed. I was probably like: ‘Why is he on my case so much?’ But now I look back three or four years on and think that was probably the best thing that I needed then because I’d come into an England squad at a young age, things had gone well for me at Worcester and then you’re on the international stage and you’re with all these players and there’s another level where you have to raise your game.
“Maybe at the time I didn’t see that but looking back I can definitely see why he may have thought that I wasn’t pushing myself as much as I needed to. Hopefully that lesson back then has helped me to be where I am now.”
England are expected to comfortably beat Japan and Borthwick has welcomed Tom Curry back into his squad after he missed the defeat by South Africa due to his second concussion of the season. Immanuel Feyi-Waboso will not be involved having displayed concussion symptoms over the weekend after also missing the 29-20 loss to the Springboks with a head injury.
Borthwick’s side will hope to break their five-match losing run with the head coach bemoaning how his players were not fit enough at the start of the autumn campaign. In response, Lawrence said: “Steve’s obviously had the opinion that we’re not fit enough at the moment and we back that if it’s his opinion. We’ll keep working to get fitter and better as a team.
“The transition from Premiership to Test rugby is a huge difference. There is a big jump and, as players, we have to get better up to speed as quickly as we can.”
Against South Africa, England again found themselves in a position to win the match but dropped off in the final quarter. They had five lineouts in promising positions but failed to convert any of them with Luke Cowan-Dickie’s dummy throw – for which he was penalised – proving costly.
“It was a match-defining moment,” said the replacement hooker. “It was the first time I’ve done it, probably ever. But it potentially cost us the game. That’s what happens in top-flight rugby. I was pretty gutted. I’ve been involved in a lot of games and it’s about bouncing back.”
