Ollie Lawrence: ‘We are trying to just focus on the rugby for now’
Ollie Lawrence made his England debut in 2020
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Following Worcester Warriors’ 45-14 loss to London Irish on Saturday afternoon, Ollie Lawrence expressed how he and his teammates’ main focus is rugby going forward.
Having had a disrupted summer due to having been hit with a winding-up petition by HMRC over unpaid tax, and wages having been paid late, in part or not at all.
It was only confirmed the week prior that Steve Diamond’s club would take part in their opening fixture of the Gallagher Premiership season, although a long-term solution to the team’s future is still yet to be found.
Unable to play any preseason games as a result of their financial strife, a preseason game against Glasgow Warriors called off after wages at the end of August went initially unpaid, it was a frustrating first outing for the side.
Giving away 15 penalties to London Irish’s four across 80 minutes, there was a clear rust on display for the men from the West Midlands who wore last seasons’ kit without names on to start the new campaign.
“This is our first game and we wanted to empty the tank, to see where were as a squad,” Lawrence said at the Gtech Community Stadium.
“Obviously disappointed not to get the result we wanted, kind of giving it all and then if at half-time we needed to make subs because boys were blowing or whatever, we were going to make that decision.
“I think today our discipline probably let us down and that is the one thing we said going into the game we needed to be conscious of because Irish, we know that if we give them easy penalties, they are going to put it in the corners and drive us down and they can get points from there when they get momentum.
“Probably on the whole, not the best outcome for us, but like I said, first blowout for the team. Hopefully take it into next week back at Sixways.”
For the England international, his face is entirely the opposite of the one that we saw in May when Worcester went to Brentford to play in the Premiership Rugby Cup final.
Winning that game after extra time 25-25 – their victory confirmed thanks to scoring four tries to the Exiles’ one – the 22-year-old’s joy was apparent for all to see.
At the time, many saw the victory as Worcester’s new dawn. With Steve Diamond at the helm, it felt as though there was little other way than up for a side that had hardly ventured out of the bottom sixth of the top flight.
In that game, Lawrence came off the bench and jokes that it was good to be out on the same pitch in West London with ‘two fresh hammies’ in what was his first start in 11 months.
One of the club’s most outspoken players during their summer of great uncertainty – if a couple of tweets count for being outspoken – with the new season now underway it is time to focus on the week to week grind of professional sport.
“For us really as a team, the main focus is on the rugby,” Lawrence said. “I think everyone knows there is a lot of stuff going on in the background at the moment, but we are trying to just focus on the rugby for now.
“There is nothing we can do or say that is going to control what happens over the far side [the business], so we have got our rugby unit and we stay tight together.
“Whatever happens over there, happens over there. We can’t really have much say in that. We just have to wait and see what happens.”
When confirming that Worcester would take part in the opening month of the season, Premiership Rugby’s CEO, Simon Massie-Taylor, also said that ‘the next month or so is key for them finding a long-term solution for the club’.
It is clear that Warriors are by no means out of the woods yet. Steve Diamond eluded to a potential investor in his own post-match media session, meaning that the rumour mill will continue to turn as September rolls on.
But while talk of ownership and administration will be the headlines, Lawrence and his teammates can only look to taking on an Exeter Chiefs side that started their season with a 24-20 win over Premiership champions Leicester Tigers, this Sunday at Sixways.
“Our focus at the moment is ‘take each game as it comes’,” Lawrence said. “That’s all we are trying to do as a team, it has not been easy for anyone involved with the squad, down from staff to players to anyone.
“All I can say is credit to the boys who pitched up today and managed to put in a performance. We didn’t get the result we wanted, everyone knows that, and there is a side of us that feels we have let some of the fans down.
“We knew how important this game is for our club and I think going forward over the next two or three weeks we know how important it is for us to get results and there is different meanings and different feelings for each player as to why we want to get those wins.
“The togetherness of this group is something that I haven’t seen before over the last four or five years. I think that is the thing that is going to get us through this and however long we have got to deal with it.”
