Matt Dawson believes the battle of the scrum-halves could decide the Premiership Rugby final – and who wears the number nine shirt for England this summer.
Northampton Saints take on Bath in the season showpiece at Twickenham on Saturday, with both sides looking to end long droughts when it comes to the biggest prize in English rugby.
Saints last lifted the trophy in 2014 while you have to go all the way back to 1996 for Bath’s last triumph – but both sides have been red-hot this season en route to booking their tickets for the final.
Saints and Bath have developed fine reputations for thrilling attacking rugby and while fly-halves Fin Smith and Finn Russell have earned plenty of headlines, World Cup winner Dawson believes the game could be won and lost by England pair Alex Mitchell and Ben Spencer – as both audition for a starting place in this summer’s Tests against Japan and New Zealand.
“It is a huge battle,” said Dawson, speaking to promote GSK’s Tackle Meningitis Campaign.
“I am slightly biased as a scrum-half but these are the two form scrum-halves of the season no question.
“They are so incredibly influential in the way that their teams play. They are quite different, with Ben being a little bit more pragmatic whereas Mitchell is really running the show and keeping the opposition guessing.
“It has been remarkable how Ben Spencer has not been given more caps and more opportunities over the last three or four years. I find it very strange, it’s not like all of a sudden he has been in good form, he has been like that for an extended period.
“Alex Mitchell has blossomed. He was on a great trajectory anyway but from that moment of him being included in the England squad last minute for the World Cup and starting in the Test matches, he has become one of the supreme scrum halves in Europe.
“You would say Mitchell and Jamison Gibson-Park are going to be scrapping it out for a Lions shirt. These are the games that the Lions selectors will be watching to see if Alex Mitchell can win a trophy, can he handle the pressure when he is going to get attention.”
Northampton and Bath ended the season level on points, with Saints taking top spot courtesy of points difference. Both then battled through semi-finals against Saracens and Sale Sharks respectively to set up a final that is almost too close to call.
“They are the top two sides at the end of the season, they have proven themselves as the top two teams week after week, they have played some brilliant rugby,” added Dawson.
“A packed out Twickenham, two brilliantly supported teams and both teams want to entertain. Across the board it has so many ingredients to be a cracking afternoon.”
Dawson was speaking ahead of the final as part of his efforts to raise awareness around meningitis through GSK’s Tackle Meningitis Campaign.
The 51-year-old has teamed up with two-time Paralympic champion Jonnie Peacock to encourage the general public to learn the signs and symptoms of the infection, after Dawson’s son Sami was hospitalised with meningitis W135 aged two.
Dawson hopes the campaign can empower parents to act quickly to stop the bacteria from causing long-lasting problems.
“Being a parent of young children is difficult enough, there are a plethora of issues and concerns that parents have about their kids,” he said.
“Whether it is their temperature, learning to walk, whether they have a cough or a cold. If you put those symptoms together, that is really what we are highlighting.
“From first-hand experience, it is just something a little bit more than just a fever. There is an element of gut instinct, we found ourselves saying it was not normally how he is. I remember holding his hand and thinking you are visually sweating but your hands are cold, but I didn’t know those symptoms.“I would love to think now that any parent that was sat next to their two-year-old child and said that to themselves, that immediately alarm bells would be ringing and there are a couple of meningitis symptoms there let me call the GP.
“It’s not just about rolling a glass over a rash, which everyone seems to think ‘that is meningitis’, often that is too late. In these circumstances every minute genuinely counts.
“Sometimes it can be easy to dismiss, but for the sake of two minutes google it on your phone and you have armed yourself with something that could save yours or someone else’s life.”
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