As Jim Telfer would always say, ‘Getting picked for the Lions is the easy bit,’ Matt Dawson tells TRU. “The difficult bit is winning for the Lions and winning a Test series.”
The former England international knows all about the challenge of facing the Springboks in a British and Irish Lions series and coming away with the desired result.
Dawson was part of the history-making Lions tour to South Africa in 1997 and arguably his superb try during the first Test in Cape Town was a catalyst for Ian McGeechan’s team.
With memories of 24 years ago resurfacing this week, the 2003 World Cup winner will, of course, be a keen onlooker as the current crop of Lions look to repeat the feat achieved by the class of ’97.
“Everything is just very different for us watching the games back home, but for the players, it is sort of what they are used to,” says Dawson, who was speaking from an event hosted by streaming service, NOW.
“These are professional players who have been plying their trade in a really strange environment for the last year or so and I think both sides will come out and deliver a really quite fantastic game for us.”
Dawson started all three Test matches back in 1997 as the Lions clinched a 2-1 series win, however the fresh-faced No.9 only had two England caps to his name before the tour.
Many saw him as the third-choice scrum-half behind Rob Howley and Austin Healey, but Dawson became one of the stars in South Africa.
“I remember often when you are sat in your room, you might have had a little power nap and even then you are thinking ‘I am playing at the weekend,’” Dawson adds. “'I am playing against Joost van der Westhuizen. I am going to be playing at Newlands. This is the biggest game of my life.’ That sort of rattles around your head numerous times from the moment the selection is made.
“When you get picked for the Lions, you’ve got to get over that pretty quick and get your head into what you can bring to make sure the Lions win at the weekend. It will be incredibly intense around the strategy. You will want to make sure that no stone is left unturned.”
Those thoughts could well be running through the minds of the 23 which Warren Gatland has selected for the first Test against South Africa on Saturday. Alun Wyn Jones returns to captain the side whilst the inclusions of Jack Conan, Ali Price and Elliot Daly may come as a surprise to many.
Similarly to Dawson, the aforementioned Price might have been bottom of the pecking order in the scrum-half department given Conor Murray’s Lions experience and Gareth Davies’ connection with Gatland, but the Scotland international has taken his chance with both hands.
“It looks to me that it has been a different mentality because every player knew they would get opportunities,” Dawson says.
TEAM NEWS ??
The moment we’ve all waited FOUR years for is here…??
— British & Irish Lions (@lionsofficial) July 21, 2021
“You don’t even get that in international rugby. No one says to someone like Josh Adams that he is going to play twice to see how he plays. You just don’t get that. There is a comfort that it gives you that you know you are going to get that opportunity so you don’t have to waste energy in selection ways, more on your skills in training and when you get your chance. You know you are going to get your chance, then it is down to you.
“Someone like an Ali Price, they really have put their hands up saying that they are ready to play in the Test match and saying to Gats, 'What are you going to do about it?!’ That is all he can ask from them.
“It doesn’t matter whether you’re the captain, the vice-captain, whether you have been on two, three tours. You have got to bring it and the intensity of competition that Gats is promoting in the squad means that everybody is ready to play and everybody believes if they are picked, they can play.”
Dawson, like everybody else, understands why this particular British and Irish Lions tour differs from those that have gone before.
With a third wave of Covid-19 hitting South Africa, the restrictions for the players are extremely tight meaning that respite from the intensity of the series isn’t as accessible as it has been in previous years.
“The difficult part of this particular tour is that they don’t necessarily have that outlet to wind down because the training is intense and it goes up a notch just by the nature of what is happening at the weekend, but you can’t go out and pop for a coffee or have a local visit to the park, the zoo, the cinema, have a game of golf or whatever takes your fancy,” Dawson says.
“That is not on the table so I think if anything, the players will have to be managed to simmer themselves over the week to then get the crescendo right for Saturday rather than peeling themselves off the ceiling and maybe being emotionally drained.
“There is not having that release from the pressure cooker, but I’m sure the management have planned around that and again, this is not the first time the players have been in camp and being in a bubble. They will know the types of activities they can do to wind down and chill out a little bit.”
With South Africa naming 11 of their World Cup winners in their starting XV for Saturday and the Lions selecting a team that will look to run the Springboks into the ground, it is nearly time for the talking to stop.
Despite the world champions only playing a limited amount of rugby since lifting the biggest prize in the sport 20 months ago, Dawson expects South Africa to come out firing whilst he hopes this group of Lions can emulate the success he experienced back in 1997.
“The fact that the Lions had the opportunities to play their games to impress the coaching staff has been evident,” says Dawson. “South Africa have managed to get near Test match intensity rugby, blowing some of the cobwebs out but let’s not lose perspective.
“You can go into that first Test match cold, but the realisation of what you are doing and who you’re playing against and who you’re playing for and where you’re playing is going to affect how you play on the day and it will no doubt motivate and boost everybody.
“I am expecting both sides to be pretty much on the money because they know what is at stake. This is not just a normal Test series that can be rectified a year later. South Africa have waited 12 years for this. The Lions have waited four years for it and waited 12 years since they lost the previous series [v South Africa] so there is plenty to play for and plenty of motivation.”
