Ed Dawson
Height: 6’0”
Weight: 90kg
Date of Birth: 17/10/1989
Born: Jersey
Position: Wing
Previous Clubs: Taunton
Outside Interests: Shooting and Spear Fishing
One of Ben Harvey’s mantras is that Jersey Rugby will only
progress as far up the rugby pyramid as is possible with home grown talent.
Losing Michael Le Bourgeois (the first local born professional) in the summer
was a blow to this philosophy, but has shifted the focus onto other players.
One of these is 24 year old winger Ed Dawson. The only Jersey born player to
start the opening Championship match of the season against Plymouth Albion at
Sandy Park, and the longest serving player in the squad last time out versus
Leeds, he has rewarded the faith shown in him by scoring a try in the Plymouth
game, another in the win against Bedford and his third of the campaign verses
Bristol the following week.
Harvey points out that there are possibly more Jersey born
players in the squad now than there were in the 60’s and 70’s. With around 50% of
Island residents currently not actually born here, to have so many in a
professional squad playing at such a high level; is testament to the work both the
club and the players have put in. None more so than Dawson who has been one, if
not the most consistent of these in recent seasons. With the focus on
developing local talent, much has been said and written about youngsters such
as Jack Burroughs, James Voss and Luke Stratford. Dawson has been so good he has
almost been forgotten when talking about the Jersey youth, but despite being only
24 years old, he has played 116 first team matches to date.
With the Club turning fully professional in the summer, many
players left, but Dawson stayed. He signed a new contract at the back end of
last season with Harvey saying, ‘Ed has really grown in stature this season and
become a mainstay in the team through his impressive displays.’
Dawson was introduced to the game by his two older brothers
when he was five, ‘They used to like playing against me then, I think I was
always going to play rugby, I’ve always loved it from an early age and just
carried on playing. I don’t think there was ever an influence, if there was, it
was just my love for the game.’
At seven years old Dawson left Jersey to go to Mount House
boarding school in Devon. At 13 he moved on to Kings College in Taunton before
taking a travelling gap year. ‘As I was at school at Kings, I thought I may as
well play for their Colts (Taunton), and I also played a couple of senior games
for them.’
Dawson credits his team mates as his rugby influences and
those helping him to develop, rather than any big international stars: ‘It’s
been the players around me, I started off as a young very inexperienced winger
having moved from flanker, I was lucky to play with guys like Sam Tuia. As
Jersey started buying in more experienced players I always wanted to be as good
as them and learn from them.’
Despite this influx of players, having Jersey roots is as important
to Dawson as it is for the fans who turn up every home match. ‘Being local for
me has been fantastic, I love the Island so much. Playing at home the support I
get has been fantastic; it’s great to have a proper professional sport on the
Island. It’s amazing we can have international sportsman playing in our local
team, such as Elvis (Taione) for Tonga and Kingsley Lang has played recently for
Zimbabwe. People come every week, it has changed people’s weekends.’
I asked Ed if having friends and family in the crowd makes the
expectation easier or harder? ‘I think as a Jersey boy I get a lot of leeway,
it makes it easier for me. There are a lot of biased people out there, I know
some of the old boys always say when I score, leave it up to the Jersey boy to
score the tries. I do get a lot of praise, there’s a lot of pride in the local
boys and in Jersey as a team.’ Much deserved though as Dawson has been a
regular try scorer for Jersey since his debut in National Two South in 2009.
Well placed to oversee the change from top amateur side to
fully professional, Dawson has seen a massively positive change in the mindset
on and off the pitch. ‘Everything has changed, professionalism throughout the Club,
everything is about rugby. Where things were looked at once, they are now
looked at twice; it’s all taken much more seriously. It’s not about having a
kick around with your mates, it’s all so much more focussed when its rugby time.’
The only locally born player in the starting XV to play
Plymouth in the opening match, Ed scored a fine try in a first half where
Jersey dominated. With three tries in three games, the cross-field kick from
Niall O’Conner to Dawson wide on the left was a feature of the opening matches.
I asked Ed how much of that was talent, how much was hard-graft off the pitch?
‘That’s just heads-up rugby’, he said: ‘I see there’s a bit of space and call
for Niall, it’s really Niall who puts it on a sixpence. It’s not the most
difficult skill I have to perform, I still have to catch them, but credit must
go to Niall to make it easy for me.’
It’s easy to forget in this new professional era and the
fact that Dawson seems to have been in the team for some time that both he and
Jersey have played at Twickenham in the National Two Champions final against Ampthill
and District. Not only that, Dawson actually scored a try in the game,
something that many players can only dream of. ‘I remember Ross Cubie Kenwright
at the time, he gave me a really good pass,’ he said. ‘I didn’t really have to
do much except for run it in. I remember it being a really good team try. Cubie
had to perform a really good skill to put me over the try line, he was always
good at that, but it’s really good to say I have scored at Twickenham.’ And
what of the game itself? ‘I remember at the time I was bricking myself,’ he
said, ‘I think for the first half an hour I struggled to get into the game. I was
still quite a young naive player. The whole Twickenham big changing room
experience got to me a bit. It took me a while to find my feet.’
Over a century of Jersey games has made Dawson one of the
more recognisable faces in the squad, but what has given him the most
satisfaction? ‘My ability to come up the leagues,’ he said, ‘I don’t think I
have found my ceiling, I have been able to adapt to every league I have been
in. I feel comfortable in the Championship. I don’t feel it is too good for me
or that I am out of my depth, I am proud of the way I have adapted and improved
every season. Since coming from London One, there has been wingers brought in
naturally over the years, but I have strived to be better. I don’t fear the
competition it just makes me train harder having someone to beat, it’s a good
opportunity to make yourself better, one day they could bring in someone more
talented, but that’s professional sport.’
One if not the most consistent Jersey player over the last
few seasons he has made the number eleven shirt his own, but it has not always
been easy for him. ‘I do sometimes plateau during the season, all I can do is
train as hard as I can, stay out as long as I can on something I am uncomfortable
with to make it comfortable, turn a negative in to a positive.’
Away from the pitch Dawson is fairly relaxed about the game;
‘I love my shooting and spear fishing, I will shoot anything, within the law’, he
joked, ‘I don’t find rugby gets on top of me, I don’t mind being out on my own.’
Dawson uses the Tiger Woods principle, ‘It’s Tiger Woods’ 14 steps, if he hits
a bad shot, he thinks I have only got 14 steps then it is out of my mind. If
you do something wrong on the pitch you have to let it go, otherwise it will
just eat you, and that will just hurt your confidence in the end.’
But the focus is very much on rugby, and Dawson still believes
he and Jersey can progress further and higher. ‘Becoming a professional rugby
player is my main achievement, I never thought when I was younger I would be
able to do that. I’m proud of where I am in the Championship but there are
always targets to aim for.’
And for those youngsters looking to follow in the footsteps
and become the next Ed Dawson? ‘When you are young just keep at it, even if at
the time you feel you are not doing very well, or are just sitting on the
bench, not being picked, keep at it, because I was very lucky when I got in at
the root level and progressed with Jersey. If I was a youngster coming in at
the Championship standard I would be very intimidated and a bit disheartened
with the standard above me, just keep at it, keep at it, if other people are
telling you that you are good enough, you are good enough, have belief in
yourself.’
At just 24, Dawson is a young man still learning his trade,
and with his best years ahead of him his future looks very promising indeed.
With the Jersey Academy bringing on a glut of talented youngsters the future of
Island rugby is in safe hands.
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