England face Argentina for the fourth time in a year on Saturday but the Twickenham game will be the last meeting between the sides until they face each other in Tokyo in the 2019 World Cup.
Eddie Jones’s side have won the last three encounters despite first playing a man short for all but the first four minutes at Twickenham a year ago when Elliot Daly was sent off for a dangerous tackle and then in the summer winning both Tests despite being without a team of players who were with the Lions in New Zealand.
Courtney Lawes says: “We have limited time together between now and the next World Cup and we need to make every minute count. We know it’s on the way and Eddie Jones has planned everything out. It all leads to the World Cup but, while we are counting down the games, we are not looking past the next one, which is against Argentina.”
Lawes readily acknowledges England did not do very well at the 2015 World Cup, “but that is a long time ago”. “We are focused on not wasting the opportunity we have in two years. We have the players, the coaches and the staff; we have the right mentality and attitude to win it. We have to make sure that we knuckle down so that, when we get there, we can get really excited and tackle it head on.”
England spent last week training in the warm in Portugal, enjoying lineout sessions on the beach. In typical Jones fashion the setting may have been a resort but it was no holiday for players who have been promised shock therapy in the buildup to the World Cup.
“We were up at 5.30am with the first session at 6am,” says Lawes. “We were wrestling by 6.30. A mixed martial artist named Dean taught us some stuff that related to rugby and it always ended up with wrestling. I don’t think anyone is technically that good but we are all pretty strong. It was challenging but fun.”
England have a grappling contest of a different kind on Monday when they meet the Wales forwards in Bristol for a series of scrums and lineouts that will be overseen by the referee Nigel Owens. “It will be interesting,” says Lawes. “It is a good idea but we have to make sure that our egos do not get in the way. We are rivals but we are playing them next year in the Six Nations, not now. It will be full‑on; it always is when we have teams to play against in training. It is a bigger version of that. I know a few of their boys from the Lions and hope that we all get something from it.”
Lawes has achieved consistency under Jones and pushed hard for a starting place in the Lions Test side. But the Australian made sure his charge went into the autumn series without a trace of complacency by saying the forward could have done better for Northampton last month. “The biggest thing for me has been staying fit,” says Lawes. “On top of that my work ethic, in the gym and on the training pitch, has been way higher than in previous years. It has meant I have been able to do things I always knew I could but never managed to. I am older now and, where in the past shoulder problems got on top of me, my muscles seem to have matured.
“I enjoyed the Lions tour a lot and liked seeing what the other players were about from different nations. I know I have a lot to do with England in terms of getting in the team and I can also learn a lot from the guys around me here. Perhaps my energy has dropped in terms of collisions and I need to get back on the wagon but I feel my performances have been strong. I was ill with a virus for a couple of weeks but I feel fresh now.
“I have had a long couple of seasons and it might have been exhaustion. I did not feel that good on the pitch for a couple of weeks but I’ll crack on.”
Lawes is competing for a place in the second row with fellow Lions Maro Itoje and George Kruis as well as Joe Launchbury, probably the player unluckiest to miss out on the trip to New Zealand, and Bath’s Charlie Ewels. Lawes played in the back row in the Six Nations although Itoje wore No6. “I have been spoken of as a second-row for now,” says Lawes. “Because there are so many good locks we are spilling out into the back row. Even Launchers could play at 6: we could have a very big team.”
