3 days Ago
OLLIE LAWRENCE has said he will 'always be grateful' to Eddie Jones, despite being frozen out of the England squad by him. Lawrence was handed his first England cap by Jones after strong performances at Worcester Warriors, however the Australian took him out of the squad for the last period of his reign. In Jones' book, 'Leadership: Lessons from my Life in Rugby', Jones wrote: "He’s still a kid, only 21, but 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." Lawrence has since seen his international career revived under Steve Borthwick. "I'll always be grateful to Eddie because he gave me my first England cap," said Lawrence.
"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’.
Back then I was probably a bit annoyed. I was probably like ‘why is he on my case so much, why is he on my case?’. "But now I look back three or four years on and think that was probably the best thing that I needed then.
"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 so there’s another level you have to raise your game to. "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.
" Lawrence burst onto the scene at Worcester Warriors in late 2017, making his debut against Sale Sharks, he went on to sign his first professional contract with the club in December 2018. In October 2022, his contract was terminated at Worcester as it went financially bust - he had initially joined Bath on a short-term loan deal, before signing on long-term at the club. In May 2023, Lawrence was named Premiership player of the season.
Since their exit from England Rugby competition, Worcester Warriors have recently taken steps to re-join in the new revamped second tier. They will find out if they have made the shortlist of teams added to the league shortly..
