Courtney Lawes

Courtney Linford Lawes (born 23 February 1989) is an English professional rugby union player who plays as a flanker for Premiership Rugby club Northampton Saints and formerly for the England national team.

Lawes was born 23 February 1989 in Hackney to a Jamaican father and English mother and moved at the age of four to the town of Northampton where his mother was from.

Lawes attended Northampton School for Boys and is a product of Northampton Old Scouts, the same club that produced his former teammate Rob Milligan as well as Ben Cohen and Steve Thompson, amongst others.

In October 2007 Lawes made his Saints first team debut against Esher in National One in the 2007–08 season which ended in promotion.

Lawes won England representative honours for the U18 side and toured Australia with England Under 18s in 2007.

He missed out on the 2008 U20s Six Nations through injury but featured in the IRB Junior World Championship that year.

The following season he began to establish a reputation as a tackler, notably in the final of the 2009 European Challenge Cup against Bourgoin where he dislocated the shoulder of Morgan Parra and in the 2015 Six Nations Championship match against France with a tackle on Jules Plisson.

In the summer of 2009 Lawes started for the England Under 20 team that finished runners up to New Zealand in the final of the 2009 IRB Junior World Championship in Tokyo.

In July 2009, Lawes was selected for the England Saxons squad and on 26 October 2009 he received his first call-up by coach Martin Johnson to the senior England squad.

He made his England debut on 7 November 2009 in the 18–9 defeat against Australia at Twickenham, replacing Louis Deacon for the last twelve minutes of the match.

In March 2010 Lawes was part of the side that beat Gloucester to win the Anglo-Welsh Cup and the following season saw him start in the 2011 Heineken Cup Final at the Millennium Stadium as Northampton finished runners up to Leinster.

He was included in the squad for the 2011 Rugby World Cup and started in their quarter-final elimination against France.

After the World Cup new coach Stuart Lancaster continued to select Lawes and in December 2012 he featured in a win over New Zealand.

In May 2013 Northampton were beaten by Leicester Tigers in the Premiership final however the following season saw Lawes play an integral part in Saints securing both the Premiership and European Rugby Challenge Cup titles in 2014.

They beat Bath at Cardiff Arms Park to win the Challenge Cup and the following weekend defeated Saracens to win their first ever Premiership title.

He was selected for the 2015 Rugby World Cup and featured in two pool games against Fiji and Wales as the hosts failed to make the knockout phase.

Lawes was shortlisted for the Saints Supporters' Player of the Season in 2016/17 but lost out to teammate, Louis Picamoles.

Lawes participated in the 2016 Six Nations Championship as England achieved their first Grand Slam in over a decade.

He came off the bench in all three tests as England completed a series whitewash on their 2016 tour of Australia and later that year scored his first international try on his fiftieth cap against South Africa.

The following year saw Lawes start in the last match of the 2017 Six Nations Championship which England lost away to Ireland ensuring they failed to complete consecutive grand slams and also brought an end to a record equalling eighteen successive Test victories.

On 19 April 2017, it was announced that Lawes would be heading to New Zealand with the British & Irish Lions for their summer tour, with his Saints teammate George North.

Lawes was handed his first Lions starting place for the Lions' second game of the tour, against the Blues.

He did not feature in the first test but did come off the bench in the second and third tests as the series finished level.

Lawes was also selected by coach Warren Gatland for the 2021 British & Irish Lions tour to South Africa.

He started all three tests at flanker as the Lions lost the series 2–1.

As of 2017, Lawes and his wife Jessica have four children.

Lawes was included in the squad for the 2019 Rugby World Cup.

He started all three knockout games against Australia in the quarter-final, victory over New Zealand in the semi-final and defeat to South Africa in the final as England finished runners up.

Lawes was a member of the side that won the 2020 Six Nations Championship.

On 6 November 2021, Lawes captained England for the first time, in a game against Tonga.

Lawes retired from international duty following the 2023 World Cup.