Dawson plays and shoots from hip

John O'Sullivan talks to England scrumhalf Matt Dawson whose rollercoaster. ride throughout his playing career has ruffled a few feathers.

It's that mischievous glint flecked with arrogance, cocksure and yet impishly schoolboy in appearance, brash and vocal on the pitch, humorous and laid back in his civvies. There is only a touch of exaggeration in suggesting that most of Matt Dawson's opponents would relish shaking him warmly by the neck in the immediate aftermath of matches.

There would though be a grudging respect even from those least enamoured with his on-pitch antics because the 30-year-old Northampton, England and Lions scrumhalf is an excellent footballer, quite prepared to accept physical punishment without curbing his appetite for the less glamorous side of his position.

Dawson will venture where the cauliflower brigade roam, aware that there is a queue, and a long one at that, to wipe the smirk from his visage. He has never balked at controversy on or off the pitch, prepared to voice his opinion however ill judged the timing or the outlet.

The most celebrated manifestation of this behaviour was his controversial article for an English newspaper that cast a shadow over the Lions first Test victory in the 2001 series against Australia. Dawson was highly critical of what he viewed as the austere Lions management and primarily New Zealand-born coach Graham Henry.

Amongst other things Dawson ventured that "Graham Henry does the team talk but it doesn't inspire me at all - too much shouting and screaming. He picked out individuals to wind them up but it is all very childish". Henry would respond in a subsequent column with the crushing observation, "so it really was the age-old story - a betrayal of your mates for 30 pieces of silver". Dawson apologised to his team-mates at the time and reflecting on the incident has since pointed out: "The timing was poor and I've apologised where I've needed to apologise. But I've never met anyone, in any field, who hasn't made a mistake at some point in their life.

"If you were to look at the comments I made now, you would not believe how much hype was made out of them. As far as I'm concerned, I've put my hand up and I'm moving on. I hope others are grown up enough about it to move on, too."

It was a far cry from four years earlier when touring South Africa with the Lions. He went out as third choice scrumhalf behind Rob Howley and Austin Healey and returned one of the Lions premier players not least for his wonderful individual try in the first Test. His break and overhand dummy completely bamboozling the South African quartet of Joost van der Westhuizen, Ruben Kruger, Gary Teichmann and Andre Joubert.

In idle moments Dawson might consider about a choice made as a youngster that saw him abandon his trials for Chelsea FC and pursue a rugby career. The Merseyside-born, life-long Everton fan, was once on the books at Stamford Bridge. "Yeah. I was a right wingback. In the Dan Petrescu mould." Playing in a Sunday league match for Flackwell Heath near his Marlow home, he was spotted by a scout who alerted Chelsea. Twice a week he trained with their boys' team but, by then, he had taken his place at the Royal Grammar in High Wycombe and the twin pressures of studies and the emphasis on rugby in the school made a choice inevitable.

"I was very serious about my football, particularly that year with Chelsea, but though they wanted to carry on the relationship, and I was happy to do so, I soon realised the time involved in going down to London twice a week provided an unrealistic workload."

Dawson also excelled at cricket, good enough to keep wicket for minor counties side Buckinghamshire, but it was to rugby that he eventually committed himself. His career has been pockmarked by up and downs, the notable lows outside the 2001 Lions Tour, missing the Heineken European Cup final win by Northampton over Munster (2000) and leading England in Grand Slam defeats against Scotland and Ireland.

He observed ruefully: "You can look at a lot of my rugby history and say success has had to be forged in adversity. I've become used to the rollercoaster ride that's been my career. Being steady plainly isn't my style. My rugby career is a reflection of me and my life off the pitch. There's never a grey area and probably never will be. It's always very up or very down."

Dawson has never been afforded a decent innings time wise in his international career despite winning 47 caps, scoring 13 tries since his debut against Samoa in 1995, injuries and an incessant battle with Kyran Bracken - Dawson has been dropped by England four times for the latter - exacerbating his frustration.

He won't be cowed as evidenced by the media barbs he took "personally" on the '97 Lions Tour and also the bottle he showed in England's wretched summer tour of '98, when many senior names chose to stay at home. Then, when asked to take the kicking duties for the '98 Test against South Africa at Twickenham, he shredded the Springboks' ambitions of a record sequence of victories with his right boot.

He inspires tremendous loyalty from team-mates and everyone seems to have an opinion. One respected rugby observer opined: "His obsessive gamemanship borders on the cynical and it is beginning to disfigure the games in which he features." Yet former Northampton Director of Rugby, John Steele, who guided the club to that European Cup triumph, maintained: "You see him sniping around the fringes of the scrum and you wince when you see him taking those big hits but he gets up and battles on.

"You see him taking crucial kicks and know the pressure won't get to him. It's like his career; physically and mentally resilient, he's soaked up all the disappointments and fought back to the point where he is now head and shoulders above his competition. He is a fighter."

England are a poorer team without him and judging by his track record to date he won't care who he offends in proving that point emphatically during the forthcoming Six Nations Championship.