Courtney Rhodes was supposed to end her 20-year playing career here.
We are sitting in the April sunshine on the balcony of the house he and his family have grown to love, admiring the stunning Colese landscape. Instead, Rose, not one to follow a script, decided to trade everything and return to England with Sale Sharks.
“Once more into the fire,” he says – and with the same steely look his adversaries have feared for 20 years, he follows up with “Let’s go!”
For one of the most destructive forwards in world rugby, stepping away from the intensity and staying away from it has always been difficult.
“I only have a limited amount of time to play rugby so I would like to play in the top league and finish where I started,” Laws added.
His second decision in two years at Brive, France, tested him and required him to evolve in ways he had not anticipated.
Rose spent the past two years in France with Braive.
It takes a certain kind of player to pack up his wife and four children and move to a new country after 17 years with Northampton Saints. It’s taught him to dial it down just a little bit and go with the flow, which he jokes may come in handy when he moves to Sale to live with his in-laws later this year.
Above all, it gave his body, and perhaps more importantly his mind, a break from the relentless intensity of England’s rugby.
Rose recalls: “If I had played in the Premiership last year, I don’t know if I would have continued playing rugby next season because the environment is so tough.
“Even mentally, something is very different now that I’m here. I don’t have to put my energy into anything.
“I’m going to go into next season, probably my last season of rugby, and give it everything I’ve got and see how far I can go.”
Perhaps it would be to return to the world stage with England, but he offered without much encouragement: “I’m officially coming back from international retirement!”
Rose won the last of his 105 international caps at the 2023 Rugby World Cup. According to the RFU’s eligibility rules, even if the forward had had a change of heart he would not have been selected by England head coach Steve Borthwick while playing overseas, but the move to Sale opens the door for him to return.
It could be a timely boost ahead of next year’s World Cup in Australia after England’s worst-ever disastrous Six Nations campaign.
Laws added: “It doesn’t mean I’m going to play for England again. That remains to be seen.”
“It’s always a process for me. If I can come back and do well for Sale, I’ll give myself the opportunity to play for England.”
“I have no expectations about playing. If Steve thinks he can add me to the team, I would be happy to do it.”
Laws captained Northampton Saints to the Premiership title in 2024
Laws, who has been vocal about talent being “wasted”, brings back a different player to the one who won the Premiership title as captain of Northampton Saints, but his two years in France have only sharpened his perspective.
“I don’t understand why you would limit your options. If you look at the players that are here, the Willis brothers will be out here next season, and Zach Mercer and Joe Merchant were here as well.
“No other country is doing this. I don’t really understand it. It’s harmful at this point and should be reconsidered.”
That view only strengthened when England fell into a slump in the 2026 Six Nations.
“It was tough,” Laws said. “I’ve been in the locker room in situations like that when things aren’t going well.
“This is a very young team and there are very few players with real experience in the team at the moment, so it is understandable that it will be very difficult to bring these young players through.
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Sky Sports’ James Cole talks about what steps he expects to take in the RFU review following England’s poor performance in the Six Nations
“The game against Scotland was kind of the springboard into the Six Nations for that team. You can say everything there is to say, you can imagine how the game will go, but there’s no substitute for experience.
“It’s just a small part of what we’re looking at at the moment, but there’s only one way to gain experience. England need to stay positive because we have a lot of great players and it’s just a matter of seeing what makes the best team from now on.”
In terms of experience, there are few players better than the former England captain. Lawes is one of only five players to win more than 100 caps for England, but experience alone is not enough. He says he must perform the only way he knows how, with uncompromising intensity.
“I can bring things in terms of leadership, but I think most importantly I have to perform,” Laws says. “If you can’t go out there and perform on the pitch, it doesn’t matter whether you have a place in the team or not.
“That’s how I’ve led anyway, and that’s the best way to lead. I don’t want to be on a team just because I’m a leader. If I can’t perform on that stage anymore, I don’t deserve to be there. That’s the most important thing to me.”
During the final months of the season at Brive, he chases promotion and soaks up everything this rugby-obsessed corner of France has to offer.
Living here has given him breathing space and time to take up new hobbies. Painting, self-taught to find my own style, and playing padel, which is as bloody and uncompromising as rugby.
He approaches the slower pace of the region in a unique way, but with all the focus and dedication you would expect from such an iconic rugby player.
He leaves nothing to chance and knows every detail. That’s why when I ask him another question about the World Cup, he already knows that no Englishman has played in a World Cup.
“I knew about it. I was talking to one of the boys about it today, and we were talking about how cool it would be and things like that,” he says.
“It would be amazing without a doubt if we could make history. But like I said, it’s the result of a good process.”
But with all that the Northampton boy has achieved, you wouldn’t bet on that. And if he accomplishes it, expect it to be on his terms.
