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Courtney Lawes' Premiership win admission: 'I was actually pretty pissed off'

By PA
Courtney Lawes - PA

Courtney Lawes revealed his immediate reaction to Northampton’s Gallagher Premiership title triumph was annoyance that they had played so poorly.

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Saints prevailed 25-21 in a tense final at Twickenham even though Bath completed 59 minutes with 14 men after prop Beno Obano was sent off for a high tackle on Juarno Augustus.

Lawes, playing his last game for the club before joining Brive, admitted they had won ugly but insisted they were worthy champions given their performances over the course of the season.

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“I couldn’t believe we had actually won it because we tried so hard to lose,” the Northampton captain said.

“At the end of the game I was actually pretty pissed off. Slowly it has kind of settled in. We did what we needed to. We got across the finish line and that’s what rugby is.

“Sometimes it doesn’t look pretty and it certainly didn’t today, but we won and that’s what matters. I think we’ve deserved it throughout the season.”

Fixture
Gallagher Premiership
Northampton
25 - 21
Full-time
Bath
All Stats and Data

Lawes signed off his 17-year Northampton career with his 283rd appearance and a victory made possible by George Hendy’s late break and the support line run by match winner Alex Mitchell.

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The 35-year-old, who arrived for Saints’ victory press conference bare-chested and wearing ski goggles, heads to Brive as one of the greats of the English game.

“It will take a bit of time to set in. You always focus on the next thing in rugby because the next job is always so important,” Lawes said.

“There are a lot of things I will never do again at the Saints, but I owe the club so much. It won’t be the last time I contribute something to the club.

“I’m just really happy to have been able to deliver what the club deserves, really.”

Bath rallied from the red card shown to Obano to lead 21-18 with 13 minutes left and even after Mitchell had raced over they were pressing for the score that would reward their resilience.

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M
Mzilikazi 26 minutes ago
Why Australia won't see the best of Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii at centre

Joseph A Sua’ali’i's first game had me thinking who I had seen have a notable first game at International level. The standout from my memory( now not as good in the past) would be a young Welshman, Keith Jarrett. He debuted at 18, in 1967, against England, Wales winning 34 - 21(days of yore). Jarrett scored 19 pts(21 under the 7 pts converted try of today), 1 try, 7 goals.


Sua’ali’i's debut was not as spectacular as that of Jarrett, and your stats. Nick, paint a realistic picture of his game. But stats. can also be overplayed. They can't show the total picture of such as how the player dealt with pressure, how he passed or kicked, his attitudes and reactions to situations during the game. To my eye, he was always calm, very even tempered in all situations, and never showed any signs of arrogance, or getting ahead of himself.


As a coach of schoolboys long ago now, I always looked for the signs that a player had special qualities, across the whole range, skills, mental strength, ability to a team player etc. Sometimes one could pick them very young, U 13 being when boys played their first rugby in Ireland in those days... mini rugby was starting, a few weeks only late season. 12 of the players I coached went on to wear an Irish jersey at a variety of levels, right up to 4 at full Int. level. of all those players, only one I picked as a future Int. at the U13 level.


In relation to Sua’ali’i', I saw so many indications that he can develop into a very good WB, and one hopes, a great one. Now I did not see him at U13 level, but I see from one comment he had a agent already as 12 year old. So he looked very good very early. May he remain serious long term injury free.

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