Courtney Lawes blames England’s woes on ‘sheltered’ upbringing as Henry Pollock and new generation have not faced ‘adversity’

Courtney Lawes believes that part of England’s problems stem from the new generation’s ‘sheltered’ upbringing which has brought about a lack of ‘adversity’.

Steve Borthwick’s men are in the midst of a crisis following three successive defeats in the 2026 Six Nations Championship.

They succumbed to Scotland and Ireland over consecutive weekends before going down to a first-ever loss to the Azzurri.

It has put both Borthwick and the squad under serious pressure, with the head coach’s job potentially on the line against France.

Lawes reckons that there is an issue with the senior members of the squad not playing well while the younger ones are facing the first big test of their careers.

‘Kill or be killed’

“England have no choice when they play France on Saturday. After three consecutive defeats, their attitude in Paris has to be: kill or be killed. Figuratively speaking, of course,” he wrote in his Times column.

“But I don’t know if enough of England’s young players really know what that means. How many of them have faced any true adversity in their rugby careers or even in their lives?

“The defeat by Scotland really put a hole in the England ship. There is a clear age divide in the squad. The older, experienced boys are not performing at a world-class level.

“The young boys are having their resilience tested for the first time. It is really difficult in those circumstances to get back on course.

“Up until now, those younger lads have known only sunshine and rainbows in their international careers. This Six Nations has been a massive wake-up call.

“They are getting a real taste of what rugby is like when the sport that means so much to them is not going well. It can crush you and destroy your confidence.”

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There is enough experience in this England side, with the XV to face France featuring Ellis Genge, Jamie George, Maro Itoje and Elliot Daly, but it is generally a youthful outfit with the likes of Tommy Freeman, Guy Pepper and Henry Pollock becoming key players.

“When I wasn’t playing well for England in my early twenties, or when I was dropped by Eddie Jones in 2016, they were not the first times in my life that I had faced adversity. I had a tough upbringing. I had serious altercations with people that had big consequences,” Lawes wrote.

“I was in situations as a teenager where I’d said something that I didn’t think was out of place — but I ended up fighting people who wanted to beat the shit out of me. So you understood pretty quickly that words and actions carried consequences.

“And you also understood that there were worse situations to be in than losing a rugby game or three. I’d rather lose on the field than get thrown back into the positions I was in as a teenager, when it was almost a case of kill or be killed.

“So you realise very quickly that rugby is important — but it’s still just rugby and that it is not true adversity. That mindset helps you to bounce back. You can recognise when you have had a shit game or your form has fallen off, and just think, ‘Right, let’s go again.’

“Whereas the younger generation of players coming through, especially in England, are quite sheltered. You only have to look at the TikTok dance that Henry Pollock, Tommy Freeman, Freddie Steward and Fin Smith recorded last autumn.

“My God, I could not imagine any other team in England’s history where that would have happened.”

England’s lack of ‘resilience’

Lawes insisted it was not “unacceptable or a bad thing” the England quartet took to TikTok after the All Blacks win, but that “boys who have been punched in the face a few times, through their career or through their upbringing, understand the real world.”

He added: “That breeds a resilience that these boys don’t have yet. It’s just a difference in upbringing.

“Kids I grew up with, the kids I came through with, like Teimana Harrison and Dylan Hartley, they could take things on the chin. Ellis Genge is similar to that.

“But we are seeing with this England team that they are not willing to throw back yet. That is disappointing to see from the outside. There’s no quick solution to that, other than you have to live it and come through the other side.”

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