The centre on why England believe they can beat Ireland in their Six Nations opener and how his apology to fans over Alex Mitchell incident backfired. “That’s a good question,” Ollie Lawrence says as he ponders the reasons why England have lost five of their previous six Tests, even though they were in a position to turn each of those defeats into a precious victory. “I think if I had the answer to that then … ”.
![[Donald McRae]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2018/01/15/Donald_McRae,_L.png?width=75&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
The Bath and England centre pauses, lost in thought, and then laughs when I suggest that if he could reel off an immediate answer he would be on his way to becoming Test rugby’s next head coach. “Exactly. I think the main thing for us is seeing off games. We’ve been in the lead, or in a position to win after 60 minutes, in all of those games. So it’s making sure we play the game fully from now on. We’ve hopefully learned our lessons and, going into this Six Nations campaign, we can push on and put things to bed when we’re in the lead.”.
![[Ollie Lawrence races past Jack Crowley on his way to score in England’s dramatic win over Ireland in last year’s Six Nations]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/8adcfded3f665f3c7d27df51c125abe6b31503a1/0_140_5400_3241/master/5400.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
England face the hardest possible start to this year’s tournament, away to Ireland in Dublin next Saturday, followed by the visit of France a week later. Lawrence is determined to finally fulfil his talent as an international, after winning 31 caps in an uneven Test career so far, but is there a psychological barrier which he and England need to overcome first?.
![[Ollie Lawrence wants to qualify as an accountant for something to do when his rugby career is over]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/620fc483f6f455f7fca1682e6ee1f8534484c784/0_451_8256_4954/master/8256.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
“Potentially for some people,” Lawrence says before finding a more confident tone. “But I don’t think that’s something where we struggle as a team because we’ve got really strong leaders. It’s something that might come from experiencing and learning more. Now we’ve been exposed, and have been in that position a few times and dealt with the frustrations, we can really move forward in this campaign.”.
