Mum's the word for loose Dawson

By DAVID LEGGAT

Two years ago Matt Dawson sat in a conference room of a Sydney hotel, apologising to his Lions team-mates.

This week, same city, different audience and Dawson was making it clear there would be no repeat of his foot-in-mouth performance with the Lions.

On the morning of the first test against Australia on that tour, Dawson's column appeared in a British newspaper highly critical of the Lions management, of which former Blues, Auckland and Wales coach Graham Henry was the ringmaster.

Henry's tour book, Henry's Price, referred to it as "betraying trust and betraying your mates for 30 pieces of silver".

Dawson was heavily fined, came within a whisker of being sent home and has since carried the label of having a loose wire when it comes to giving his thoughts.

To make his case worse, the journalist, concerned that Dawson was pushing the boat out a bit far, circled key remarks and asked if he was sure he didn't want to rephrase them. The copy came back with ticks in all the appropriate places.

One source close to the team, with much past experience of the Dawson way, described him as the player who cops more high tackles than anyone in the game - because his head is three-quarters of his body.

But this week, Dawson made it clear that is in the past. His mother and girlfriend would "be most upset" if he spoke out of turn on this campaign. So mum's the word.

For all his outspoken ways, Dawson is a competitive, terrier-like player whose showdown with French captain Fabien Galthie should be a highlight in Sunday night's cup semifinal at Telstra Stadium.

"He's a great player who's had a great career," Dawson said of Galthie. "A lot of people now look at him as the heartbeat but he's always been that type of player.

"He's got an X factor. I don't think he'd claim to have the best pass, the best kick or be the best defensive halfback. But he's got the whole thing and that to me makes him more dangerous."

Dawson, 31, and England's most capped No 9 with 55 tests behind him since his debut in 1995, knows England have not been firing on all cylinders at the tournament. If they fail to find that fourth gear, they know France will win.

"If anything we've reached a plateau. We've not improved as we wanted to but I certainly don't think we've got any worse. We had 25 minutes against Wales (in their quarter-final) which were probably our best all-round so far.

"But if we play like we did in the first half against Wales, France would punish us."

Dawson is a scrapper by nature, so while he's prepared to extol France's rugby virtues, he's not about to raise the white flag.

"Against Wales (who deservedly led 10-3 at halftime) I did not for one moment think we were going to lose. But that's my mentality. I'll keep fighting on whatever the score."

And as one of England's celebrated over 30s, he writes off the talk of age being a problem against the French.

"That chat is still going to go on whatever happens at the weekend. It doesn't matter how old or young you are. As far as I'm concerned it's not an issue."

Full World Cup coverage