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Ollie Lawrence apologises for incident with England teammate

By PA
Ollie Lawrence of Bath Rugby walks out onto the pitch prior to the Gallagher Premiership Rugby match between Newcastle Falcons and Bath Rugby at Kingston Park on December 21, 2024 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. (Photo by Patrick Khachfe/Getty Images)

Ollie Lawrence has apologised for his role in an incident that led to his England team-mate Alex Mitchell being sin binned in Bath’s defeat at Northampton on Sunday.

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Lawrence and Mitchell clashed heads when the Saints scrum-half was making a tackle late in the encounter at Franklin’s Gardens, which was edged 35-34 by the home side.

Bath centre Lawrence crumbled to the ground and after reviewing the collision, referee Anthony Woodthorpe showed Mitchell a yellow card. Lawrence then appeared to smile at the decision.

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Following accusations that he had over-reacted to the clash of heads, Lawrence used his X account to express his remorse.

“Wasn’t to be today… Credit to Saints 👏. Big shift from the boys second half. We’ll take the 2 & move on…” he said.

“Ps – Apologies if my actions today offended anyone. On review, I understand the frustration voiced! I’ll be better 🫶”

Johann van Graan hailed Bath’s narrow loss to Northampton at Franklin’s Gardens as a showcase for the Gallagher Premiership.

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Despite trailing 19-0, Bath scored five tries to Northampton’s four, with Joe Cokanasiga crossing twice and Orlando Bailey, Will Stuart, and Max Ojomoh also scoring.

Finn Russell added three conversions and a penalty. Northampton secured victory with a last-minute Fin Smith penalty, alongside tries from George Hendy, Fraser Dingwall, James Ramm, and Josh Kemeny. Bath earned two points, extending their lead at the top of the table to six points.

“It was a phenomenal game and certainly an emotional roller-coaster, but we’ll just have to take our two points and move on,” Bath director of rugby Johann van Graan said.

“Saints had so much speed and accuracy early on and converted well in that opening 20 minutes. but then our power got us back into the game.

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“The guys are obviously gutted as they fought so hard, but we showed we are tough to beat and if we go anywhere in the world we’ll fight all the way,” said van Graan.

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Comments

2 Comments
D
DP 90 days ago

playing in the wrong Premiership mate...

C
Carlos 90 days ago

“I’ll be better”. Sure. Right. Next time. 🤦‍♂️

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ChristelLoewe 1 hour ago
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J
JW 1 hour ago
'I feel for the players': Jamie Joseph's reflection on falling short again

Some great leadership quality from Big Jim, he facilitated for large parts then put the responsibility on himself at the end drive the team forward in the last desperate minutes. He also filled in for Withy extremely well, adding real strength to the maul.


The Force have been playing very well this year indeed, and their stars did make a couple of key players, the main factor though is definitely what I reported in the previous article “

Gotta say I’m really enjoying the Highlanders desperation in the last 10 minutes of games, maybe it’s just because theyre having to throw the kitchen sink at it again. Another massive effort to hold the opposition out just like in the Blues game. I’m sure the coach’s will be wanting a little more composure though as the play seems to far more hap hazard (really just the type of footy I like watching) than the picture they bring at the beggining of games.

Again though they don’t have the refs to thank for anything, being down a man twenty more minutes than they should have been. Most importantly they were without one of they best attackers (not counting Tangitau’s early change) for the final push, with Nareki’s bin.

Again, I can see where this team is trying to go, I hope they can get their this year as they certainly have the game to be a top four team if they click. They are munch of misfits when you look at it objectively though, they probably have the worst cohesion score of any SRP team. A few more wins, maybe a come from behind upset may be the best theey can hope to acheive this year.

“. Like Jim I thought the defence stood up strongly for large parts, but they may just have some structural issues, where it’s just not paying off. They had Lawaqa on the wing all day, allowed the Force to make a dozen linebreaks, why? Both there attack and defence look a bit too fancy for me, why? Common Joseph, the youngest team with the least cohesion/most new guys, it look overly complicated.


I hope it clicks. Manson in particular looked to be trying far too hard when he came on, what’s been said in his ear? Stick to you lane son and don’t make any mistakes, don’t lose the game for your team. Should be a comfortable win next week against Drua if they keep there heads up and come back stronger. Lasaqa might be best to come off the bench, would keep Jim at 12 but I’d like Tele’a to come back to the side, though TUJ hasn’t been bad and style might suit Drua more. Hopefully Renton or someone with some size is at 8 or 6, Lasaqa appears to be more an 8 actually, similar to Sititi and I wouldn’t mind if he was groomed behind him and Sotutu. Lennox I thought could make a good halfback but isn’t ready, I’d hope Arscott, Fakatava, or Pledger could return to the side. Other than Drua theyve got Cheifs twice, though the home game is the last of the round/season so potentially a gimme if the Chiefs repeat previous years tactics. The Crusaders and Moana at home are also very doable. Those four wins could see them crash into the top 6 still.

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