YOU can’t accuse Tigers centre Chris Lawrence of not being a team player.
Lawrence would be the first to admit his past three seasons haven’t been his best, but as it turns out the former Test centre has a very legitimate excuse for his patchy form.
Widespread injuries throughout the Tigers’ ranks have forced the 26-year-old to spend the past three seasons playing busted.
After bursting onto the scene as a 17-year-old in 2006, great things were expected of the St Gregory’s alumnus, particularly after making his Test debut at 21\. However, after recovering from potentially career-ending hip injury in 2011, Lawrence’s rep career has failed to kick on, thanks mainly to a troublesome ankle.
“It’s been very frustrating but you’ve got to put the team first,” Lawrence tells RLW.
“(Over the past three years) I’ve been coming off a couple of big injuries and then having to play through those injuries because we’ve had no one else.
“At the start of 2012, I came through and that was probably the last time I was fully fit. At the back end of that year I got an ankle injury and I re-did it at the start of 2013.
“I had major surgery at the end of the year and only came back just before round one last year. In the middle of the year it felt like I was getting over it but then I had a slight re-occurrence.
“(But) we were getting to the point where we playing two back-rowers on the wing, and as senior player in the team, if I could run and I could move my legs I had to be out there.”
It’s been a long road, however, in the lead up to the 2015 season, Lawerence tells RLW that his ankle is fully recovered and that he had his best pre-season in almost three years.
“I’ve been pretty much able to do everything this pre-season, which is probably the first time in about three years I’ve been able to do all the running,” he says.
“I’m under no illusions. The body’s not going to go back to where it was five or six years ago but I’ve been able to do this pre-season injury free and I really feel like I’m in the best shape I’ve been in for years.”
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Lawrence would be the first to admit his past three seasons haven’t been his best, but as it turns out the former Test centre has a very legitimate excuse for his patchy form.
Widespread injuries throughout the Tigers’ ranks have forced the 26-year-old to spend the past three seasons playing busted.
After bursting onto the scene as a 17-year-old in 2006, great things were expected of the St Gregory’s alumnus, particularly after making his Test debut at 21\. However, after recovering from potentially career-ending hip injury in 2011, Lawrence’s rep career has failed to kick on, thanks mainly to a troublesome ankle.
“It’s been very frustrating but you’ve got to put the team first,” Lawrence tells RLW.
“(Over the past three years) I’ve been coming off a couple of big injuries and then having to play through those injuries because we’ve had no one else.
“At the start of 2012, I came through and that was probably the last time I was fully fit. At the back end of that year I got an ankle injury and I re-did it at the start of 2013.
“I had major surgery at the end of the year and only came back just before round one last year. In the middle of the year it felt like I was getting over it but then I had a slight re-occurrence.
“(But) we were getting to the point where we playing two back-rowers on the wing, and as senior player in the team, if I could run and I could move my legs I had to be out there.”
It’s been a long road, however, in the lead up to the 2015 season, Lawerence tells RLW that his ankle is fully recovered and that he had his best pre-season in almost three years.
“I’ve been pretty much able to do everything this pre-season, which is probably the first time in about three years I’ve been able to do all the running,” he says.
“I’m under no illusions. The body’s not going to go back to where it was five or six years ago but I’ve been able to do this pre-season injury free and I really feel like I’m in the best shape I’ve been in for years.”
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