Lawes hails workmanlike England

Editor

England second-row Courtney Lawes has hailed the attitude in their training camp as they look to banish the ghosts of 2011's World Cup campaign.

Lawes, who was 22 in the previous tournament in New Zealand, said everyone in the camp wants to work hard ahead of his country hosting the showpiece.

"Everyone just gets on with it, works hard, and works for each other. No-one is negative and everyone is trying to prepare the best we can," he told BBC Sport, with the 45 players in the squad set for the next training camp, in Denver.

"It's pretty much a completely different team – quite a bit younger squad – and obviously a complete change of staff.

"Everyone is just wanting to work, everyone is trying to push themselves."

Lawes admits to feeling refreshed after a difficult period that saw him struggle with shoulder injuries, something he is delighted to have put behind him.

"Both shoulders were pretty knackered, and I was struggling quite a bit to tackle effectively in games," he added.

"But now I've got a chance to really get my shoulders good, for the biggest tournament probably of my life.

"At the end of last season I was in a pretty bad place," he continued. "That was a bit disappointing to be honest, but I would rather have played and done what I did than not played at all.

"It was a long season and if you hurt your shoulders it's really hard to recover.

"So I will go in [to the World Cup] hopefully with fresh shoulders, strong, and I will be all right.

"I just want to play to my potential, for the team, for the country, and hopefully do everyone proud."