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Ollie Lawrence determined to show his 'true self' for England
By Jon Newcombe
Like the incense sticks he likes to light in the Pennyhill Park hotel room that he shares with Marcus Smith, Ollie Lawrence’s Test career with England was, to begin with, a bit of a slow burner.
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Cast as the new Manu Tuilagi, Lawrence had precious few opportunities to show off his destructive qualities on both sides of the ball in his early days as a Test player, famously not getting a single touch an hour into his fourth cap, the 11-6 defeat to Scotland in 2021.
Whilst still far from perfect in England’s midfield, the powerhouse Bath centre is starting to build up a head of steam and the 25-year-old with 34 caps to his name – including the last 13 on the bounce – is determined to keep raising the performance bar.
“From a personal standpoint, I just want to keep playing well for this team. I think if we take responsibility for our own actions and all perform well then as a collective we’ll get good results off the back of it,” he said in the latest episode of the excellent O2 Inside Line: This Rose series.
“We are heading in the right direction at the moment and we’re keeping pushing to keep growing as a side because we have got a lot of young lads in this team now.
“The older heads are still guiding us and pushing us, and they’ve been in this environment for a long time so they know what it is like to be in a successful environment and win. And there have been a lot of younger lads really stepping up to the plate, Marcus (Smith), Fin (Smith) … those sort of boys, they have definitely pushed on and are helping to lead the side in the right direction.
“There’s so many young boys coming through, it’s good to see.”
Reflecting on how it took time to adjust to his role in Test rugby, Lawrence added: “Throughout the first five to 10 caps I don’t think I maybe gave a true representation of what I could do, and then throughout the summer and the autumn, I was pushed to make sure I was performing at a higher standard and leading the team forward in the certain areas that I can do that in, whether that is getting us over the gain-line, beating defenders, or being physical in defence.
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“That challenge was raised to me, and me and Kev (skills and kicking coach Kevin Sinfield) had a really good chat. We spoke about how boys will follow you in, especially on the physical side of things which is a part of the game that I massively enjoy and, hopefully, can add to this team.”
Lawrence was first capped whilst at Worcester but the majority of his England career has been during his time at Bath, where he has been in outstanding form in the past two seasons under Johan van Graan. Lawrence now wants the same to be said about him in a white jersey.
He has made three line breaks and three offloads in as many games in the Guinness Six Nations and has looked like one of England’s most potent attackers, breaking through a team-best nine tackles. But the offload that went skyward and into touch at the end of the first half against Scotland is an example of the errors of execution that are still evident in his game. Iron those out, and then he’ll start to stand comparison with Tuilagi.
“Now I think it’s the time in my career where I want to push on and keep performing, as I am doing in the Premiership but on the international stage, because that’s where we all want to do it, we all want to play in front of 80-odd thousand people and really showcase our talents,” he said.
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“Otherwise, it just gets wasted, and I don’t want to miss those opportunities and look back on my career and be like, ‘I wish I had just given a bit more or shown a truer version of myself in those times’.”
