‘I had to go off’ – Bulls star hails Courtney Lawes’ physicality ahead of Champions Cup quarter-final

Split-with-Courtney-Lawes-and-Nizaam-Carr

Bulls back-row Nizaam Carr praised the “legend” Courtney Lawes ahead of his side’s Champions Cup quarter-final against Northampton Saints this weekend.

The Pretoria men march into the quarter-finals on the back of a monster win over a weakened Lyon outfit, setting up a trip to the high-flying Saints in their backyard in the last eight.

Saints have had a strong season thus far and set the pace in the Premiership at this stage. The side also overcame a tight clash against Munster last weekend to advance in the Champions Cup, keeping their hopes of a silverware double alive.

Northern experience

Carr is no stranger to facing Saints having notched up more than 50 appearances for Wasps during his stint in the Premiership. The Bulls star recalled an incident where Lawes’ physicality got the better of him.

“[Northampton] are coming off a few good wins now… And last week against Munster, their variations on attack, their defence, scoring points off turnover ball, that’s something we’re going to have to watch out for,” he said.

“I played a number of times against Saints and they were always tough, home and away… they want to keep the ball alive and play to the edges [of the field].

“I remember Courtney tackling me on my hip flexors [once] and I couldn’t run after that and I had to go off! What a legend, and so is [Lewis] Ludlum who’s played quite a few matches for England.”

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Travel troubles

It has been a difficult travel period for the Bulls which ended up in a back-and-forth between director of rugby Jake White and SA Rugby over the organisation of flights for the weekend.

Still, Carr was upbeat and wants his side to be “humble” about the whole situation. The Bulls managed to get a training session in wet weather – conditions he advised his team-mates to expect.

“We had a good training session here in the wet and I said to the guys that they should expect weather like this, where it’s windy and you can’t get out of your half,” Carr said.

“And with the boys like Akker [van der Merwe] and Wilco [Louw] who have played up north, they’re all sharing their experiences. I’d love to see tries scored like last week where we ran from our own dead-ball line … but we’re going to have to be a little bit tighter.

“We’ve got plans up our sleeves preparing for both types of games; we’re always adding another string to the bow.

“A week ago we came back from two long flights and a little bit of a layover but the funny thing is, we’re quite used to it and anything less than two flights is a bonus for us,” Carr added.

“It’s a difficult thing and it’s something I can’t say much about; we just want to be the humble boys and do our job. Maybe we could travel better but it’s really out of our control and we just want to take the humble route.

“It’s horrible inside but you can’t show it in a team sport or team environment and you don’t want to give off the wrong energy. I still feel grateful to be a part of a travel squad and it’s special.”