Twin terrors keeping England star Courtney Lawes in shape during lockdown as he tries to keep his weight UP at 18 stone – while Northampton lock says a summer Club World Cup would be ‘pretty cool’
- Courtney Lawes is busier than ever despite the lockdown bringing rugby to a halt
- The England lock is happy to have maintained his weight with no rugby played
- Lawes is typically relaxed about what a return to the day job might look like
- But the Northampton forward is keen about the idea of a Club World Cup
When rugby returns it might finally allow Courtney Lawes a rest.
The irony for the towering 31-year-old Northampton and England lock in lockdown is that with no games to play he is busier than ever with his four children. Instead of tackling No 10s, it is now ‘tig’ with the terror twins.
‘Most people who are going stir crazy are the ones who don’t have a lot to do,’ England’s most capped second-row tells Sportsmail. ‘But there’s always so much to get done in my house, I’ve got no worries about getting bored!
Northampton lock Courtney Lawes has been taking care of his two youngest kids in lockdown
‘My wife and I decided to divide and conquer, so she is taking care of the older two (Nelly and Teddy) and their home schooling, which means I’m in charge of our twins, Otto and Hugo, who are two-and-a-bit.
‘I’m basically keeping them alive and trying to entertain them! They are fully into the ‘terrible twos’ phase, so it’s hard work!
‘If I’d been in lockdown when I was 20, I’d have nothing to worry about. It’s a good time to move yourself forward, in terms of getting stronger, getting bigger, getting faster, all sorts of things.
‘You’ve got hours and hours in a day to do whatever you want to do, so you can certainly improve yourself as a player. But with our situation at home, it’s just about me trying to maintain things as best I can.’
The towering England lock has been kept busy playing ‘tig’ with his children in the garden
Instead of worries about putting on weight, Lawes has been more concerned that he will become too thin throughout his career.
‘I haven’t got a ton of time for fitness,’ he adds, ‘but I’m trying to keep moving a lot and do some stuff on my running technique. It’s not running as such, but it will allow me to run when we get going again. When the weather is good, we’re playing plenty of ‘tig’ and other games in the garden —just running around a lot!
‘I’m also trying to stay on top of my weights, so I don’t lose weight while we’re in lockdown. It’s not been too hard because I’ve got a makeshift gym at home and I’ve pretty much kept my weight at 18 stone the whole time we’ve been at home.
‘The main thing is that when you’re playing rugby, you’re just running around so much and burning way more calories than I am now, so I’ve been able to keep my weight on pretty well, which is nice.’
Lawes is happy that he has been able to maintain his weight despite the lack of rugby
With no clarity yet on a firm resumption date, Lawes is typically relaxed about what a return to the day job might look like and especially the prospect of being holed up in a hotel and playing back-to-back games.
‘If we had to stay in lockdown at a hotel… that sounds pretty interesting,’ he adds. ‘I’m not sure if that would really work with my arrangements! You can’t completely avoid some sort of contact with other people and I am not fretting about the situation.
‘All we can do is pay attention to the Government’s guidelines and work around that. We’ve got to put our faith in the people who call the shots and crack on. That’s all we can do because we don’t really know what’s going on.
‘I’m just making the most of the situation. You can’t do whatever you want to do, but I’m enjoying spending time with my family and getting stuff done around the house.
The lock however remains typically relaxed about what a return to rugby will look like
‘I’m perfectly happy, but as soon as they say that it’s time to get into rugby again, I’ll be ready to do that and excited to do it. But we still have no idea how long this is going to go on or what the situation is going to be.’
With ideas swirling about changes to the calendar Lawes is ‘keeping his head down’ but likes the one about a Club World Cup. ‘Some of it sounds pretty cool — if we played games in the summer or played against other clubs from around the world. That sounds exciting to me,’ says the 85-cap lock.
While in limbo, Lawes has become a dab hand in the kitchen, and is keen to work with former Northampton lock Christian Day — now working for the Rugby Players’ Association and a recent contestant on MasterChef.
Lawes has become handy in the kitchen and wants to work with former lock Christian Day
‘I’ve learned how to cook katsu curry, jerk chicken and this Mongolian beef dish that you get at Chinese restaurants. On top of that, I’ve been cooking loads of stuff on the barbecue, joints of pork and beef.
‘I’ve been really enjoying it. I’m nowhere near as good as Christian is, but I’ve spoken to him and we’re going to do a bit of a collaboration, so that will be cool.’
So will be a return to rugby. Wherever, whenever that comes it is bound to be more relaxing than Lawes’ lockdown life.
Courtney Lawes is a Dove Men+Care ambassador, share your #DadsCare stories on twitter @dovemenuk & instagram @dovemencare
Share this article
Source: Read Full Article
