Eddie Jones blacklisted Ollie Lawrence prior to his sacking and targeted the centre in one of his many books.
In his book Leadership, released in 2021, Jones made it perfectly clear that he was far than impressed by the centre’s performances on the pitch and away from it.
The Aussie wrote: “He’s [Lawrence] 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 proved his former boss wrong by picking up a man of the match award as England overcame Italy in the Six Nations.
Lawrence on maturing:
“I’ve grown up a lot. I’ve had to mature. It’s been a whirlwind over the last six months but I have no regrets so far. Sometimes these things need to happen for you to go into a different position.
“Steve put my role against Italy as, ‘you’ve got to kick the front door down’. You can understand what he means by that!” Lawrence added.
“My job is to be physical both sides of the ball and support the other players around me and that is what I tried to do – get us over the gainline and get quick ball.
“Owen Farrell has been really good for me over the last two weeks in making sure that I know what I’m doing and he gave me the right balls, so just fed off him.
“Henry outside me is an experienced player – both of them are – so I am happy to be stuck in the middle of them.
“I wanted to get back to playing like how I used to and enjoying it again. I lost the enjoyment a bit because of the injury. When I enjoy my rugby, I usually play well off the back of it.”
Three England changes Steve Borthwick ‘should’ make for Wales clash
With still work to do for the New England boss, we look at three changes he could make to face Wales in a fortnight’s time.
Borthwick’s men travel to Cardiff in their next game on 25 February, after next weekend’s break, as the Azzurri host world number one side Ireland earlier on the same day.
POSSIBLE ENGLAND CHANGES:
#1. Marcus Smith for Owen Farrell
RUCK 6/10: “There was a lot of kicking from the England 10 and not much of it was good; either from hand or the tee. However, his overall performance improved significantly when he played in his preferred position.”
Andy Goode wrote on Twitter: “Steve Borthwick talks relentlessly about excitement and exciting the crowd, there’s zero excitement at Twickers Borthers, get Marcus Smith on please.”
Planet Rugby 5/10: “Relished being in the driving seat as he backed his team-mates regularly early on, going to the corner which paid off in tries. Perhaps over-kicked in the red zone as the jury remains out on who should start at fly-half.”
