England centre Ollie Lawrence was booed by fans for appearing to smile after his opponent was shown a yellow card for a head-on-head collision.

The incident occurred in the Bath v Northampton Saints game on Sunday, January 5. The game was still in the balance with less than five minutes to play when Lawrence and Alex Mitchell collided.

Despite the contact appearing to be minimal, Lawrence clutched his face and fell to the ground while wincing - a rare sight in rugby. Upon reviewing footage with TMO Stuart Terheege, referee Anthony Woodthorpe decided the head contact warranted a yellow card.

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As Mitchell left the field, Lawrence appeared to smirk, which incited the crowd at Franklin's Gardens. Bath were then given a penalty to go into the lead with just four minutes remaining.

"Ollie Lawrence is fine, but Bath will have a kick at goal to move ahead with seconds ticking away," said TNT Sports commentator Nick Mullins.

"It's passive, it's not aggressive," said David Flatman. "What do you think, Ugs?"

"The word that we use to characterise that as foul play, I hate the fact that it is called foul play," explained Ugo Monye. "Was there head contact? Yes. Was Alex Mitchell trying to make a tackle at that point? No, because I don't think he was expecting a line break. So he's never going to be in a position to make a tackle. So that's why we get that head collision. For me, nine tries, absolute chaos. And the game could be decided over something like that."

Click play below to see a segment of the highlights which shows the incident.

Scotland star Finn Russell pinged over the three points to put the score at 34-32 with minutes remaining, but Saints fly-half Fin Smith banged over a penalty in the dying stages of the match to steal the win at 35-34.

Taking to X, formerly Twitter, after the game, Lawrence took the opportunity to address his smirk. "Wasn’t to be today… Credit to Saints. Big shift from the boys second half. We’ll take the two & move on…

"Ps - Apologies if my actions today offended anyone. On review, I understand the frustration voiced! I’ll be better."

One fan replied: "Great game of rugby, but as a neutral I thought it was shameful play-acting on your behalf, and I thought it was going to be you carded. Glad to see you’ve recognised this issue. As Nigel Owens would say “this isn’t soccer”."

Another had a similar response: "Talented boy playing for a quality club and England. Let your rugby do the talking and leave the football antics for footballers. Focus on staying fit and ensuring my Bath win that all important 1st premiership trophy."