BBC pundit Matt Dawson insists that he will not be silenced by Ellis Genge’s attack on former players who have been critical of England’s performances in the Six Nations Championship.
Dawson said that it was “utter nonsense” that the current vice-captain would describe former players as “out of touch” for the criticism that England’s tactics received after the 16-15 victory against Scotland.
Following the Calcutta Cup win, Dawson’s 2003 World Cup-winning team-mate Will Greenwood wrote in his Telegraph Sport column that “England simply play no rugby” while scrum-half Ben Youngs, who played in Steve Borthwick’s team, was also critical of their kick-heavy tactics.
England responded with a far more enterprising attacking performance in their 47-24 victory against Italy on Sunday that keeps alive their Six Nations title hopes. In the post-match discussion on the BBC Rugby Union Weekly podcast (listen to in full below), former wing Chris Ashton admitted that he was reluctant to critique England’s performance in light of Genge’s comments.
However, Dawson maintained that he will not bite his tongue even if it upsets the current generation of players. “Just say exactly how you feel,” Dawson said. “And saying exactly how you feel doesn’t mean you’re being critical. You are well within your rights from your international career to have... That would be my answer to Ellis Genge, by the way. Just because you’re playing the game now and someone’s a little bit older than you, doesn’t mean that they don’t understand the game. That is utter nonsense.
“I don’t care what he thinks. I genuinely don’t care what he thinks about what me or another pundit will say, whether he listens to us or not, that’s his decision. But you are well within your rights, you understand the game.”
While Genge went in hard with his comments in York two weeks ago – his mood not helped by his son suffering from chickenpox – team-mates Ben Earl and Henry Slade did openly admit England’s attack was clunky when speaking at an open training session at the LNER Community Stadium.
Dawson, though, believes he is better placed to offer a more balanced perspective on England’s displays, having had a foot in both camps. “You see the game in, some would argue, a better way than a lot of these England players because you’ve got the visibility of what we have here and the analysis that we do, which is a lot broader and less biassed than when you’re a player,” Dawson said. “Because as you say, we have that experience of being the player and being the pundit.
“He doesn’t have that experience. He has that experience of being a player and that is it. We know that when you’re in that bubble, you get sucked into the, ‘everybody’s on top of me and everyone’s having a go at us’. No, we’re not. Do you know what? Sometimes we’re not even just doing a job. We’re commenting on something that we can actually see.”
