Dawson frustrated at Richmond’s tactics

Raiders, who had led 21-10 at half-time, eventually went down 36-28 at home to their old London foes and remain in the relegation places with just four games remaining.

Dawson named himself among the replacements for the first time this season and went on in the closing stages to experience things first hand.

The former Ireland international felt Richmond were happy to kill the game, resulting in Raiders seeing very little of the ball.

He said: “We came off at half-time, came back out there early because we didn’t want to loose momentum, but they changed tactics a little bit in the second half.

“I’m not very happy with some of the things that happened. With having gone on the pitch myself, it was nigh on impossible to have a fair contest in the ruck.

“They were just sealing the ball off and that resulted in a game of rugby league in the second half, I thought.

“We made our tackles and just couldn’t get it back. The rest was in the scrum and penalty after penalty and that’s not rugby union, in my opinion.

“You want it as a contest. Every ruck is a contest and we weren’t allowed to compete as they were diving at our feet. That resulted in a second half where they had all the possession and we had very little.

“If that’s the way rugby is going to go, then I will probably give up coaching. Who wants to come and watch rugby league, steal the ball, kick to the corner, have a line-out, scrum and push over?

“It’s very frustrating for our team as we pride ourselves on our competition on the floor, it’s one of the things we work hard on, and to come out on a Saturday and not be allowed to do it is really frustrating.

“The lads’ endeavour again was brilliant. The other results were quite kind to us so we are still in with a fighting chance.”

Injuries to hooker Matt Miles and front rower Scott Barlow did not help matters in the second half and both could be doubts with Worthing’s huge clash at Henley Hawks on Saturday.

Dawson added: “We were able to contain them in the first half and when Scott went off that caught us up a bit. We’ll assess him as he was carrying a knock coming into the game. Matt’s is a fresh one so we’ll have to see how he is.

“We can’t be down on this one, we have to pick ourselves up. There are more chances to catch the teams around us so we are still in with a fighting chance.”