Courtney Lawes set to make his 50th Test appearance for England against South Africa

Northampton Saints lock Courtney Lawes said he takes a lot of pride in playing for England as he is set to make his 50th appearance for his country in the upcoming Old Mutual Series opener against South Africa at Twickenham on Saturday.

It was in 2009 against Australia, Lawes made his England debut at the same venue replacing former Leicesters lock Louis Deacon in the final 12 minutes of the game. However, since then he has played 49 Tests and has been part of the victorious England team on 32 occasions.

Highlighting the challenges of the role, the 27-year-old believes team goals are much important than individual glories.

"I pride myself on being physical. It's not for myself and it's certainly not for my shoulders, it's for the team and giving energy to the boys," said Lawes, who will be calling the line-out against South Africa.

"I'm not too fussed about who I hit, where I hit or how hard it is as long as I'm doing my job.

"I prefer to stop the big guys rather than wiping out smaller ones. I do that frequently for Northampton, but when it's on big guys the impact doesn't look anywhere near as bad because they are the same weight.

"Just as long as I'm not missing tackles and I'm doing my part for the team I'm happy."

The Springboks were described as "bully" by England coach Eddie Jones earlier and when asked about locking horns with some of the sport's big players, Lawes said he is looking forward to it.

"Yeah, definitely.

"But the laws of the game are changing and I don't want to put my team in any stress from getting cards so obviously the hits have taken a plunge from that.

"Of course we have strategies around the pack to deal with their physicality and hopefully we will put that into effect.

"We have spoken about how physical they are and how their mindset changes when they come to England and we will have to deal with that."

One of the interesting battle on Saturday will be on how Lawes will handle Springboks star Eben Etzebeth and the Northampton Saints star has his plan cut out.

"Etzebeth is a big guy and he runs hard and straight. It's about technique, your height in the tackle and things like that," Lawes said.

"I'm not going to fly into him and try and smoke him, but I can certainly put him down and make the next guy's job a bit easier on my team."