Sacrifices beyond the call

ANOTHER Matt Dawson, an Australian hockey player not to be confused with his namesake from Question of Sport, made a news item the other day. Achieving his Olympic dream as a member of the Kookaburras meant amputating part of a broken finger.

Such a sacrifice in the name of international sport is not new. Red Conway was so desperate not to miss the All Blacks' tour of South Africa during the Olympic year of 1960 that he had the repeatedly broken third finger of his right hand removed. A carpenter by trade who played ten Tests for New Zealand, Conway lived to the grand old age of 87. n WRU chairman Richard Collier-Keywood has made a stout-hearted defence of Warren Gatland, arguing that the blooding of so many new players was all ‘part of the plan' to reach the semi-finals of the next World Cup. “We've asked him to do it and he's getting on with it,'' Collier-Wood said. “Of course, we're going to support him.''