My Life in Rugby: Jon Dawson – former Saracens, Herlquins, Wasps, Bath, England U21 and Cambridge Uni prop
In the national team there’s a level of financial security but I was a Premiership player and never going to make enough to set me up for life.
I’d played age-grade rugby for England and was on an upward curve with the U21s but never made that decisive step up.
In 2004 I was part of the extended England squad heavily beaten 32-12 by a Baa-baas team inspired by Thomas Castaignède. The first XV were quite settled and it was virtually impossible to break into it.
So two years later, when I was at Wasps, I decided to hang up my boots. I had offers from other clubs, and from abroad, but, if I’m honest, I’d got about as far as I was going to go.
I was grateful for my career but I’d always wanted to go to university so I decided to do it then instead of finishing rugby at 33. Part of the reason I left the game was because of a recurring nightmare that I wouldn’t be qualified in anything.
There’s nothing wrong with being a coach after you finish your playing career but knowing myself I didn’t want that.
Up until that point rugby was all I’d known. I was one of the first generations which went into professional rugby straight from school, where I was at Dulwich College with the likes of Andrew Sheridan.
Nowadays you have academies but back then there were only club associates and that basically meant you were thrown into the first-team squad to sink or swim. I signed for Saracens as one of those but at that time Paul Wallace was just coming back from a Lions tour so there weren’t too many first team opportunities.
They said to me: “Jon you’re a decent prospect,” and promptly sent me on loan to Harlequins.
They didn’t expect me to play as much as I did but we won the Parker Pen Challenge Cup 42-33 in extra time against Narbonne in 2001 with our fly-half Paul Burke slotting a penalty and a drop-goal in the final five minutes of a brilliant game.
After that Quins wanted to keep me so they paid my transfer fee – which was my wages so not a lot!
But I missed opportunities to study. You have a lot of free time as a pro and if I could speak to young players now I’d say: “Use your time wisely.”
At Quins at that time there were some guys who had done degrees or had trades, like solicitor Nick Greenstock and carpenter Jason Leonard.
But I tended to go with the flow and in a group of blokes that meant not studying. So, eventually, I bit the bullet, left rugby behind and took up a place at Cambridge to study geography and management.
Although I played three Varsity matches, and even captained Cambridge in 2008, I was there for the degree more than rugby.
Intellectually it was very stimulating and it gave me a lot of confidence. I was just the right maturity and was engaged to be married at the time but that probably made me that sad, mature student in the corner!
I now work in asset management. It’s a very different world but you still have to earn respect and, as in rugby, you live and stand by how you perform.
