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Courtney Lawes: 'Disappointing thing is we didn’t really test them'

Courtney Lawes leads Northampton off after their narrow Croke Park loss (Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Courtney Lawes paid tribute on Saturday night to the fighting spirit shown by Northampton, but the retired England Test back-rower admitted his team made too many mistakes to crib over their 17-20 Investec Champions Cup semi-final loss at Leinster.

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The 35-year-old had hoped to be leading his Saints out at Tottenham in the May 25 final in his final season at the Gallagher Premiership club before his move next season to France and a very different rugby experience in the Pro D2 with Brive.

However, Northampton ultimately paid dearly for a poor start in front of a tournament record 82,300 attendance at Croke Park, giving up two early tries and going on to trail 0-15 after 30 minutes and 3-20 four minutes into the second half.

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The English league leaders commendably fought their way back from this adversity, scoring two converted tries to have Leinster on the backfoot in the closing moments, but they were ultimately unable to land either the match-winning-try sucker punch or the drop goal that would have taken the semi-final to extra time.

Lawes never doubted his side would respond positively to being so heavily under the pump against an opposition seeking to qualify for their third successive Champions Cup final. However, he was left to rue the multiple errors that left the Premiership leaders with a margin that was just a bit too much to overcome.

Fixture
Investec Champions Cup
Leinster
20 - 17
Full-time
Northampton
All Stats and Data

“I don’t think we ever felt like we were out of the game, to be honest,” he insisted. “Probably in the second half when they scored that early try, that was probably one of the points where we had to find ourselves as a team – and I think we did that.

“It’s a credit to the players that we can have something like that happen. We said all the right things at half-time, we come out and it doesn’t go your way again – to get back on the horse and go back at them, to be able to do that as a team is very good going forward.

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“But I think the disappointing thing is we didn’t really test them; like we didn’t really put our game on the park how we wanted to. We had a lot of mistakes, dropped a lot of ball, gave away a lot of penalties. You can’t win at the highest level if you are doing that kind of stuff.

“That was obviously where we lost the game. On the plus side, we were able to push one of the best club teams in the world probably and show everybody we are not going to get pushed over by anyone. There are a lot of positives to take but it’s a really good learning for us.”

Director of rugby Phil Dowson agreed. “When we set out on the European campaign we said we wanted to challenge ourselves against the best sides to find out who we are and where we are as a group. In terms of our togetherness and connectedness, that speaks volumes about our game.

“There are clearly things we need to be better at and I hope that the experience of today will allow us to do that moving forward. The first thing we need to do is make sure we put this to bed, have a drink together tonight and celebrate what that campaign was, and make sure we prepare for Gloucester appropriately over the next couple of days into next week.

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“I felt the longer the game was 20-10 the more it fell into our hands in terms of that pressure and we came more and more into the game across the board. All the substitutions had a big impact on that and that has been one of our strengths throughout this season, our strength in depth. Guys who are coming in, guys who are coming off the bench have an impact.

“Elliot Millar-Mills I thought did that today from a set-piece point of view. Sam Matavesi as well… Loads of positives in terms of those guys coming in but again, as Courtney says, the frustration is we didn’t quite get our game going in the first half in order to create more pressure. You give Leinster a 17-point start, that last 20 minutes is going to be tough.”

Full-back George Furbank equally laid the blame for the loss on how the Premiership club fared in the first half against their URC hosts.

“First half we didn’t look after the ball well enough, probably tried force things that weren’t really there to start off with but we calmed down after the first 20 minutes and created enough opportunities to score more points and we did.

“Once Tom (Seabrook) scored that try in the corner we definitely felt like we had given ourselves a really good shot. It was actually quite calm messages, to be honest. We spoke about getting back into their half again and putting pressure on.

“They sort of shut up shop with 20 minutes to go, giving us a lot of kicks, so it was about securing that and then putting our game on the field… we came close. We put ourselves in the situation where we could have potentially should have won that game.”

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O
Oh no, not him again? 1 hour ago
England internationals disagree on final play execution vs All Blacks

Okay, so we blew it big time on Saturday. So rather than repeating what most people have all ready said, what do I want to see from Borthwick going forward?


Let's keep Marcus Smith on the pitch if he's fit and playing well. I was really pleased with his goal kicking. It used to be his weakness. I feel sympathy for George Ford who hadn't kicked all match and then had a kick to win the game. You hear pundits and commentators commend kickers who have come off the bench and pulled that off. Its not easy. If Steve B continues to substitute players with no clear reason then he is going to get criticised.


On paper I thought England would beat NZ if they played to their potential and didn't show NZ too much respect. Okay, the off the ball tackles certainly stopped England scoring tries, but I would have liked to see more smashing over gainlines and less kicking for position. Yes, I also know it's the Springbok endorsed world cup double winning formula but the Kiwi defence isn't the Bok defence, is it. If you have the power to put Smith on the front foot then why muzzle him? I guess what I'm saying is back, yourself. Why give the momentum to a team like NZ? Why feed the beast? Don't give the ball to NZ. Well d'uh.


Our scrum is a long term weakness. If you are going to play Itoje then he needs an ogre next door and a decent front row. Where is our third world class lock? Where are are realible front row bench replacements? The England scrum has been flakey for a while now. It blows hot and cold. Our front five bench is not world class.


On the positive side I love our starting backrow right now. I'd like to see them stick together through to the next world cup.


Anyway, there is always another Saturday.

7 Go to comments
C
CO 2 hours ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Robertson is more a manager of coaches than a coach so it comes down to intent of outcomes at a high level. I like his intent, I like the fact his Allblacks are really driving the outcomes however as he's pointed out the high error rates are not test level and their control of the game is driving both wins and losses. England didn't have to play a lot of rugby, they made far fewer mistakes and were extremely unlucky not to win.


In fact the English team were very early in their season and should've been comfortably beaten by an Allblacks team that had played multiple tests together.


Razor has himself recognised that to be the best they'll have to sort out the crisis levels of mistakes that have really increased since the first two tests against England.


Early tackles were a classic example of hyper enthusiasm to not give an inch, that passion that Razor has achieved is going to be formidable once the unforced errors are eliminated.


That's his secret, he's already rebuilt the passion and that's the most important aspect, its inevitable that he'll now eradicate the unforced errors. When that happens a fellow tier one nation is going to get thrashed. I don't think it will be until 2025 though.


The Allblacks will lose both tests against Ireland and France if they play high error rates rugby like they did against England.


To get the unforced errors under control he's going to be needing to handover the number eight role to Sititi and reset expectations of what loose forwards do. Establish a clear distinction with a large, swarthy lineout jumper at six that is a feared runner and dominant tackler and a turnover specialist at seven that is abrasive in contact. He'll then need to build depth behind the three starters and ruthlessly select for that group to be peaking in 2027 in hit Australian conditions on firm, dry grounds.


It's going to help him that Savea is shifting to the worst super rugby franchise where he's going to struggle behind a beaten pack every week.


The under performing loose forward trio is the key driver of the high error rates and unacceptable turn overs due to awol link work. Sititi is looking like he's superman compared to his openside and eight.


At this late stage in the season they shouldn't be operating with just the one outstanding loose forward out of four selected for the English test. That's an abject failure but I think Robertson's sacrificing link quality on purpose to build passion amongst the junior Allblacks as they see the reverential treatment the old warhorses are receiving for their long term hard graft.


It's unfortunately losing test matches and making what should be comfortable wins into nail biters but it's early in the world cup cycle so perhaps it's a sacrifice worth making.


However if this was F1 then Sam Cane would be Riccardo and Ardie would be heading into Perez territory so the loose forwards desperately need revitalisation through a rebuild over the next season to complement the formidable tight five.

28 Go to comments
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