Background
Lawes grew up near Northampton.
Lawes grew up near Northampton.
Lawes is a versatile player, and can play either in the second or back row. Lawes is a product of Northampton Old Scouts, the same club that produced his former team mate Rob Milligan as well as Ben Cohen and Steve Thompson, amongst others He toured Australia with England Under 18s in 2007 and made his Saints first team debut against Esher in National One in the 2007-2008 season.
He missed out on the 2008 U20s Six Nations through injury but featured in the Institutional Review Board Junior World Championship that year.
He established a reputation for making huge hits, notably in the final of the Electronic Communications Committee Tournament against Bourgoin where he hit Morgan Parra in a tackle so hard that his shoulder dislocated and in the 2015 Six Nations Championship match against France with a huge tackle on Jules Plisson. On 7 July, Lawes was selected for the England Saxons squad.
On 26 October, Lawes received his first call-up to the England Rugby Elite Squadron He made his England debut on 7 November in the 18–9 defeat against Australia at Twickenham, replacing Leicester"s Louis Deacon for the last 12 minutes of the match.
In the summer of 2009 Lawes was a member of the England Under 20 team that reached the final of the JWC in Tokyo.