Wednesday 5 February 2020 18:51, UK
Courtney Lawes has dismissed criticism of England's back row and insists it makes no difference where he lines up in the pack.
England's back-row, with Lawes at blindside flanker, came in for criticism following England's 24-17 defeat to France in the opening round of the Six Nations, with coach Eddie Jones accused of not picking players in their favoured positions.
But Lawes played last year's World Cup final from the second row, is confident his partnership with Tom Curry and Sam Underhill will continue to improve.
"For Saints, I've played five, six, five, six so I'm really quite used to swapping," Lawes said.
"There's no real difference to how I play, in terms of round the park. I'm happy to play wherever.
"I think our back row needs time to grow together and get used to playing with each other. Cuz [Tom Curry] and Unders [Sam Underhill] are great players and if I have the opportunity to play with them again I'm sure we're only going to get better if we keep playing with each other.
"Cuz will keep working on play eight and I think he's going to be a great player."
England face a crunch grudge match with rivals Scotland in the second round of matches, looking to build on the solitary losing bonus point they accrued in Paris.
Improvement across the board has been high on the agenda, but they will have to make do without injured duo Manu Tuilagi and Anthony Watson at Murrayfield.
Tuilagi hobbled off with a groin strain, while Watson has suffered a set-back in his recovery from a calf injury.
However, Lawes is confident that this weekend will provide a good indication of how much England have learnt from the France loss.
"Morale is still high, boys are still happy to be in camp. Obviously we're disappointed with the result but we play rugby where you win and you lose sometimes and it's about getting back on the horse and making it right next game," Lawes said.
"There's plenty of areas for us to improve on. We entered their 22 a good number of times and didn't come away with any points, so our conversion rate is something we need to work on so we've looked to do that. And we're just looking forward to getting back out there and having some success hopefully.
"It'll be a great game, obviously they came out on the wrong side of their result as well. They'll be fired up, we'll be fired up it's no better game for us to play now. It's a tough place to go and play. A place where we can see how much we've learnt from the weekend."
