Ollie Lawrence denies that he cheated to get Alex Mitchell sin-binned in Bath’s Gallagher Premiership defeat at Northampton on Sunday.
The England centre was the subject of an outcry on social media after he crumbled to the ground following a clash of heads with his international team-mate at Franklin’s Gardens.
Referee Anthony Woodthorpe reviewed the decision and showed Mitchell a yellow card, drawing a smile from Lawrence.
Lawrence apologised at the time on social media in case “my actions today offended anyone”, but he insists did not take a dive.
“We collided head on head. It wasn’t bad enough probably for me to go down in the way that I did,” he said in a video posted on his TikTok account.
“I probably could have carried on running and allowed the ref to pull it back afterwards if he thought there was foul play.
“But in that moment, whether my judgement was clouded or not, I felt like it was head on head so I went down. I was completely entitled to. I didn’t cheat the system, I didn’t dive.
“For our own safety, if there’s a head collision you’re allowed to go down and the ref can review it.
“A lot of fans weren’t happy with that, that’s fair enough and I understand your perspective.
“I apologised online and I said if you took offence to what I did then I am sorry, but I didn’t cheat, which is what a lot of people thought I was doing, and I didn’t dive.
“People said I brought the game into disrepute and I’d argue that I didn’t, I just went by the letter of the law.”
Lawrence also explained the smile that was shown on the big screen at Northampton.
“In terms of my reaction, I do smile after I make a mistake. It’s something I’ve done my whole career. It’s just my way of getting over it,” he said.
“There was no wry smile, or a wink, or whatever people think they saw. That’s just me cracking on.”
