Lawes played with Burrell at Northampton for seven years and has yet to contact him, though he has put together a message. Lawes has had only a few fleeting experiences of racism in his own career and believes the issue of class is a potentially bigger problem within rugby. Still, the 33-year-old says it is up to the players themselves to eradicate any signs of racism.
“Maybe I’m lucky, I was only at Saints and the only time I ever experienced racism was when I was 16 there, came through the academy,” Lawes said. “Since then, honestly, the club has not even thought about it. I had a problem with him (Burrell) saying that racism is common in rugby. To be honest, it was not my experience. But if that kind of thing is going on in certain clubs, it needs to be addressed. ‘
“We do not want such things to continue in the game. Therefore, I was surprised that any color of player at any club would accept that kind of behavior. From my experience at Saints, it would not take me or Luds (Lewis Ludlam) or anyone like that to pull it up – it would be pulled up by the team, or whoever heard it at the time.
“It is disappointing, but what is good is that from my experience I have not heard of many players who have gone through it. It does not happen everywhere, which is a good thing.
“We have to crush it. We need to find out what is happening and whether it is happening at any other clubs. We have to sort it out. ”
Laws will lead England in the series of three Tests against Australia where they will now compete for the Ella-Mobbs Cup, named after English war hero Edgar Mobbs and former Australian flyhalf Mark Ella, who replaced the Cook Cup, who was inspired . by the British explorer Captain James Cook.
As Aboriginals, Ella and her brothers received a lot of racist abuse while playing for Randwick, Eddie Jones’ old club in the 1970s and 1980s, and saying changing the name of the trophy is a step in the right direction.