England legend joins Sharks after Brive exit
TRANSFER NEWS: Former England international Courtney Lawes will leave French second-division side Brive at the end of the season to return to the PREM Rugby.
Lawes is set to join Sale Sharks on a one-year deal from the start of the 2026/27 season.
The 37-year-old has been at Brive since 2024.
The versatile forward, who can play at lock or in the back row, won 105 caps for his country during a 14-year international career that included four World Cups and five British and Irish Lions caps across two tours.
On the domestic scene, he played almost 300 times for his boyhood club, Northampton Saints, and captained them to their first Gallagher PREM title in ten years in 2024.
That 2024 PREM final, against Bath, would be his final game in green and gold before leaving for French Pro D2 side Brive.
Now, after two years in the south of France, he’s heading back across the channel to join Sharks’ Northern Force and have one last crack at English rugby’s biggest prize – and maybe even force his way into Steve Borthwick’s England squad.
“CAB (Brive) would have loved that Courtney Lawes finish his career at Brive but understands his desire to take on another challenge in the country of his birth and wishes him success in this new adventure,” the club said in a statement.
“The club is very proud to have had a world rugby legend and one of the greatest backrow forwards of his generation wear its colours.”
Lawes, who won three Six Nations titles – including the 2016 Grand Slam – said he had thoroughly enjoyed his time at Brive, where he has made 37 appearances.
“I will never forget my time at Brive, both from a human as well as a sporting point of view,” he said.
“I will give it my all till the end of the season in order to finish this adventure with Brive in the best possible manner.”
On joining Sale Sharks, he stated: “I’m really excited to be joining Sale. I’ve been out of the Prem now for a couple of years, and I just want to finish my career playing at the top level. I think Sale have got a brilliant squad, so hopefully I can add to that, and we’ll see what we can do next year.
“My body feels good, and I’m still performing at a high level. I feel like I can compete with the best of them, and then some, and I think if I retired now, I’d probably regret it when I was older.
“As a rugby player, you’ve got a very finite career, and you’re a long time retired, so I want to make the most of it while I can, give it everything for another season, and then we’ll see what happens.
“When I decided I wanted to come back to the Prem there were only a couple of teams I would have signed for. Obviously Saints because of my history, but Sale were the other one because my wife’s family is all from Cheshire.
“There will be quite a few familiar faces at the club. I’ve played with a lot of the England lads and Dorian West was my first forwards coach as a professional player. I know the club is bringing in some brilliant players for next season too – guys like Joe Marchant and Alex Lozowski will add a lot on and off the field.
“I’m officially un-retiring from international duty and I’d love to play for England again but first and foremost I want to play well for Sale and we’ll see what happens after that.”
