Dubai: Next month’s autumn internationals in London give England the chance to make Twickenham a fortress ahead of hosting the 2015 IRB Rugby World Cup, according to former Red Roses scrum-half Matt Dawson.
Stuart Lancaster’s side play New Zealand, South Africa, Samoa and Australia in the capital from November 8 to 29. And Dawson, 41, who was part of England’s World Cup-winning squad in Australia in 2003, said it was an ideal time to assert authority if they are to reclaim the Web Ellis Cup at home next October.
“This autumn is really important,” he said on the sidelines of Thursday’s Emirates Airline Dubai Rugby Sevens Long Lunch. “It’s our last chance to get in front of the big three [New Zealand, South Africa and Australia] on our home patch.
“If I was in that team I would want to send them home with their tail between their legs, so they think ‘the next time we come here we’ve got a task on our hands’.
“We don’t want them to have the confidence and the video analysis, so that when they return for a pool match or quarter-final they can say ‘the last time we were here we won, so what’s the big deal?’.
“If we go through the autumn and beat everyone — and it is possible — all of a sudden it sends a bit of a shiver around, so that when it’s World Cup time, you’ll know you’re coming into the lion’s den.”
However, Dawson, who scored 101 points in 77 appearances for England from 1995 to 2006, added that injuries to key players could wreck England’s chances.
“Up front there’s a little concern for Alex Corbisiero, Dan Cole, Mako Vunipola, Tom Youngs and Geoff Parling. That’s a quite a chunk of front line players gone,” he said.
“The positive is we’ll see someone else coming through, which is great, but for them to blood themselves in, in a year, to the same level of those guys is going to be a big shout.”
Dawson, who also played in the 1999 World Cup, added that, although he believes Lancaster’s side is better than the 2003 squad, question marks surround the current team’s experience and ability to handle expectations.
“They are ten times more skilful than we ever were, stronger, fitter, they have got better technique and are more disciplined. But the question will be: have they got it in their minds to deliver against varying opposition when the scoreboard is against them?
“That unfortunately only comes with experience, and not necessarily in years but in variance of the game.
“There will also be huge pressure and that will be something that goes either way, you either fly with it and embrace it and use it as motivation to create another five or ten per cent of yourself, or you’re going to crumble.”
Either way, Dawson said he hoped England could lift the trophy on home soil in order to take the attention off 2003.
“The 2003 lot have waffled on long enough,” he joked. “I don’t want to be rugby’s equivalent of the 1966 Fifa World Cup-winning team, still being rolled out to talk about it — legends though they are — I want the next generation to experience that now.
“I want them to be successful, and for them to do that on home soil would probably outdo us [the 2003 squad] in so far as the explosion of rugby.”
