[ad_1]
Wellairytale covers are not always available to order. As at least one of England’s most famous contemporary rugby players is about to discover. Courtney Laws and Owen Farrell have collectively given 33 years of service to Northampton and Saracens respectively, but lose in the season-defining Gallagher Premiership play-off on Friday night and the closing chapter will inevitably be bittersweet.
Then again, just imagine the wall of noise at Franklin Gardens if the Laws and Saints manage to march together in this year’s finale. This is already a gadget with a lot of history attached, Northampton’s last league title after coming at the expense of Sarris in extra time a decade ago. The following year, as now, Saints had a juicy-looking home semi-final against the same opponents and lost 29-24, with Dylan Hartley subsequently missing the 2015 World Cup after being penalized for a headbutt on Jamie George.
It says everything about the enduring quality of their respective captains that both Lowes and Farrell are still raging against the dying of the light and remain key to this massive rematch. Several people asked Lowes this week if his farewell appearance at home, after 17 years, might be more thought-provoking than usual. He politely explained to us. “I want to go there and do what I’ve always done, which is to spread my blood and give it everything I’ve got,” he quietly replied. “I fully intend to.”
But once the season is over and he moves to France to play for Brive, it will be an emotional wrench for everyone. The Saints could rush out and sign three new forwards and still not feel quite ready for life after the big Courtney. Also, there are few players more inextricably linked to their community. Lowes’ mother, Valerie, still lives just a two-minute walk from the stadium and he knows the surrounding streets like the back of his tattooed hand. “I represent the people I grew up with and the places I grew up in, and I don’t take that lightly.”
It is ironic, then, that his first visit to Franklin Gardens, when he was 13, did not lead to love at first sight. “I came with my uncle Pete. It was before England won the World Cup in 2003, so I must have been about 12 or 13. I actually had no idea what rugby was; it was the only game I came to watch and I didn’t think much of it. I was crazy about my football and played a lot of tennis and rugby wasn’t on the radar at all. I didn’t even start playing it until a few years later.”
One hundred and five caps for England and five more Tests for the British and Irish Lions later, Uncle Pete clearly deserves the gratitude of an entire nation. Sometimes the value of certain players is belatedly appreciated, but at 35, Lowes is still playing out of his skin and would like to tour with the Lions again next year. His Director of Rugby, Phil Dawson, cannot speak highly enough of his continued contribution. “The game changes every year … it’s almost unrecognizable from when I played. If you’re stuck in your path, you fall because the game goes on and someone bigger, faster, and stronger comes along.
“But his game has also evolved. He’s smart enough to think, “I’ve got to be a jackal threat if I want to play in the back row.” At the World Cup, he got turnover after turnover. You think, “Wow. You were a striker and a striker. Now you were waiting for a ball carrier. That’s impressive. How many players move from the back row to the second row when they slow down? He goes the other way. He will play in the center of Brive.”
Laws has also had to battle a lot of injury pain over the years, but as Dawson says, you’d never know it. “We manage Courtney in terms of training load, but as soon as you put him in something competitive, you know he’s going to be able to turn it on.” Against the top class Saracens back row featuring Ben Earle, Billy Vunipola and Juan Martin Gonzalez, he will need to be at full speed again if the Saints are to secure a final at Twickenham next week against Bath or Sale Sharks.
after the promotion of the newsletter
It would be the perfect leaving gift if he can lead his club to one final trophy. As early as his debut season in 2007, he contributed to Saints’ promotion back to the Premiership and, as well as the 2014 Premiership title, helped win two European Challenge Cups in 2009 and 2014, the Anglo-Welsh Cup in 2010 and reached the 2011 Champions Cup final.
Along the way, the quiet child from a hardworking family – in his youth his mother worked as a prison officer while his father Linford – who emigrated to Britain from Jamaica as a young man as a nightclub bouncer – came to see rugby as more than just another game. “I think it’s a great sport, not only as a spectacle, but as a core value. You can’t become a great player without a lot of work, you have to respect others, you have to play for your team. Obviously you want to be paid like the footballers – but we’re doing well to be honest. Northampton’s finest will soon be gone but he will forever be a local legend.
[ad_2]
