England rugby star 'confident' he'd get picked for Lions despite retiring over a year ago

A former player who retired from international rugby 17 months ago is adamant that he would still get into the squad. Courtney Lawes was a stalwart for the Red Roses from 2009 to 2023, winning 105 caps in total. He now plays in France with second-tier outfit Brive, making him ineligible for England selection.

Under RFU rules, players who are not based in England cannot be called up to the national team. Things are slightly different with the Lions, though. Last week, head coach Andy Farrell confirmed that he was open to selecting foreign-based players in addition to non-internationals.

Lawes is adamant that he would still be able to cut it at the highest level and has issued a come-and-get-me plea ahead of the Lions squad announcement, which is pencilled in for next month.

Speaking on the podcast, Lawes said: "I 100 per cent could do it if I got called up, if I got my foot in the door. I'd be pretty confident I could play myself into the Test XV, for sure.

"I'd love to go out there and prove myself again and flipping go for it. Why the hell not, do you know what I mean? I thoroughly believe I can do it, yeah."

Lawes toured with the Lions in 2017 and 2021, playing in all three Test matches against the All Blacks four years ago. Under his captaincy, Brive have risen to second in the table behind leaders Grenoble with six games left until the end of the season.

"It may be the case that I get called up [by the Lions] and I'm proven wrong," he added. "I'm not delusional about it, but I'm pretty confident that if I did get the opportunity, I could still perform."

The former Northampton back row is convinced that some aspects of playing second-tier rugby are more difficult than at the highest level, namely toeing the line with the match officials.

"It's much less organised," said Lawes. "The opposition is less organised but also my team is less organised. It makes things more difficult. It's made me have to adapt my game.

"I have to be much more reactive, because things happen on a dime here. Out here you have to be incredibly clean because a lot of the reffing decisions, especially away from home, will not go your way.

"There's always things to adapt and develop and with my game, my responsibilities with this team, I'm ball carrying a lot more, which I love.

"I didn't get as much of it last season because a lot of the time I'd be held on the width as the blindside flanker. Here, I'm actually playing seven, tight head flanker basically, so getting a lot more ball carrying.

"I'm getting back to really high levels. I've got most turnovers in the league at the minute and generally I feel I'm playing pretty well."