Lawes lashes Bulls over Euro cup 'carnival'

18/04/2024 08:16

England hardman Courtney Lawes has weighed in on the Vodacom Bulls' travel saga and so-called 'B team' for the EPCR clash against the Northampton Saints last week.

Director of rugby Jake White slammed accusations that the Bulls fielded a second-string side for the Champions Cup quarter-final at Franklin's Gardens, where the Pretoria outfit slumped to a nine tries to three defeat.

White named a Bulls team missing a host of Springboks, including World Cup winners Canan Moodie, Willie le Roux and Kurt-Lee Arendse, while co-captains Marcell Coetzee and Ruan Nortje also remained in the Republic.

The buildup to the playoff was marred by White taking shots at SA Rugby about travel logistics, and speaking to former Scotland international Jim Hamilton on the Rugby Pod, Saints star Lawes accused the Bulls of making a meal of it while disrespecting the Champions Cup by sending a weakened squad.

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"My take was it's a very South African thing to do that whole carnival around it, putting it out in the press about the eight different flights, this and that," the Test centurion said.

"I guarantee you that it wasn't eight different flights and the players all probably got there and all very much the same time and maybe the staff got there at a bit of a different time.

"But I guarantee you that a lot of things there were at least exaggerated, to be honest, and it was a great way of them taking the pressure off themselves and essentially putting it all on us.

"Disrupting us, getting us thinking different things and not quite on the ball and that's what I was pretty wary of, to be honest. I was pretty disappointed that they didn't put their best team out."

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