'An icon of Northampton Saints' - CEO Darbon gives the latest on the future of Lawes

CARDIFF, WALES - FEBRUARY 25: Courtney Lawes of England looks on during the Six Nations Rugby match between Wales and England at Principality Stadium on February 25, 2023 in Cardiff, Wales. (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

There has been some speculation that Lawes could exit the club following this year's World Cup, with Toulon a rumoured destination.

The French giants have had a habit of signing players from Saints, with Samu Manoa, Dan Biggar and, most recently, David Ribbans having agreed to join them.

So could Saints Academy product Lawes be the next in line?

"Courts is an icon of Northampton Saints,” Darbon said. “He's a genuinely world class player and an icon of English rugby.

"In an ideal world we'd obviously love to keep Courtney, and there are discussions that are underway at the moment.

"I can't really say too much more than that at this stage.

"We know Courtney loves this place, we like Courtney, but there's obviously a lot to consider when you look at some of those decisions.

"It (conversations around the future of players) is very common at this time of the year.

"You've done a lot of your recruitment and retention activity by now but there's always some things that are still left so there are a couple of pieces of the jigsaw that we're still working on and I'd expect us to resolve that over the coming weeks."

Lawes is now in his 16th season as a Saints first-team player, having racked up a massive 261 appearances for the club.

The 34-year-old has played 97 times for England, but his game time for club and country has been limited by a series of unfortunate injuries so far this season.

Lawes is now back in training and will be hoping to feature in the final two matches of the regular season for Saints, with a game against Saracens next up on April 15.

But there is a recognition that no player can stay at Saints forever, no matter how much of a club legend they are.

"You can't go on forever and the Dan Biggar situation (Biggar left Saints to join Toulon in November) was a great example of that," Darbon said.

"There was a great opportunity for Dan to go overseas.

"He came to us really keen to take that opportunity, and given that we were bringing in Fin Smith and there was quite an attractive financial transaction around that deal, it made sense for us to look at it as an opportunity.

"Things can't go on forever and the most important thing for us is that we build a squad that can be competitive moving forward."