The murky labyrinth of the openside flanker, a realm where laws are rarely observed, instead broken, bent or ignored. The ability to steal is prized, turnovers the ultimate garlands. Kieron Dawson does not protest, in fact he smiles at his job description. Larceny is a badge of honour.

Openside flanker is something of a misnomer in that the best practitioners spend a great deal of time buried in rucks, reclaiming possession or protecting their own ball. "There is a fair bit of scavenging and I do enjoy those days. I suppose I like cheating," Dawson laughs.

New regulations, manifest in the advent of the sin bin and the new tackle law, threaten flankers' nefarious world. "The new tackle law is probably the worst. Where once I could come across from their backline and steal the ball, I now have to change the angles and come from the back feet. I'll have to be a bit careful but still bend the laws a little bit."

Dawson, who was 25 last Saturday, is not alone in his attitude and on Saturday at Twickenham will confront England flanker Neil Back in what promises to be a fascinating subplot to the England-Ireland Six Nations Championship clash.

The Bangor-born player is regularly pitted against the best English flankers while playing for London Irish in the Allied Dunbar Premiership, and is looking forward to another meeting with Back. The clash of the respective backrows has been cited as a central battleground to the outcome of the war. "I generally like playing against him (Back).

"He's very good on the ground, employing clever spoiling tactics: although that doesn't seem fair on him because he is a good ball handler. I play against guys like him every week and have nothing to fear from them at the moment. A pain in the neck is how I would describe him (Back) to play against.

"You have to know how to play him. When you take the ball into contact, you have got to push it away from the body because he is so low to the ground. He's very brave, he'll put himself where a lot of other guys won't. If you present the ball well then there is no problem with him.

"He can get niggly in that he likes to say a few things to you but at this stage it's water off a duck's back. He's one of those wing forwards who is not particularly chirpy on the pitch, unlike Scotland's Budge Pountney who is probably one of the best that I have faced."

Dawson points out that Ireland must not alone discommode Back but the entire English backrow of which much is expected. "Lawrence Dallaglio is a very good player, a strong, dynamic ball carrier. If we can get our scrum right I think we can negate him. Our scrum is a very important part of our game.

"I actually think Hill (Richard) is the best of the three. He is probably one of the best backrow forwards in the world. I certainly don't enjoy playing against him because when I go fishing for the ball, it's generally him that hits me hard out of there: but we have a nice balance of speed and power with Anthony (Foley) there at number eight. We can certainly take them on."

The recent World Cup is a conversational point that few players wish to address but for Dawson the fallout was not as devastating as it was for the home-based players. "I got out of Ireland very quickly after the World Cup, straight to London and back into the league format. It was a very disappointing time but for the players back home, the management and the coach it must have been terrible. We have got a chance to put that right now. Fortunately Irish people seem to forget quickly.

"There is a restraint amongst the squad in terms of talking about what we are hoping to achieve in the Six Nations. We aren't and don't want to talk ourselves up but that should not be mistaken for a lack of desire. There is a fierce will to do well and not just limit ourselves to a couple of wins.

"We received a great deal of bad press after the World Cup and we are determined to prove to the public that we can play well. We genuinely believe that we are a good team and on Saturday we have to prove that. We recognise that we are underdogs going into the England game but we have a few ideas up our sleeve for combating what will be a very strong England defence. We have identified a few places where they are weak and we are going to attack them there.

"We don't want to set unrealistic goals, yet at the same time there is no way that we are going to sell ourselves short. You can't go onto the pitch thinking that you are not going to win."

Having won Triple Crowns at Schools and under-21 level, Dawson would dearly love to complete the hat-trick.