The selection of Ireland’s Ronnie Dawson to lead the British & Irish Lions on their tour of Australia, New Zealand and Canada in 1959 caused a stir at the time and, it is fair to say, in the hooker’s own Dublin home.
Dawson, who has died aged 92, later described receiving the letter from the Lions selectors telling him that he had been chosen as a tourist. By his own admission he was “still a greenhorn” and was so surprised that he screwed up the letter and threw it in the air before later discovering a sentence at the end informing him that he was also to be captain.
Dawson went on to lead the Lions to what is still their only win over the All Blacks in Auckland, but had been the understudy back home in Leinster to the 1955 Lion Robin Roe, while Welsh supporters will always be convinced that their hooker Bryn Meredith had no peers at the time in that position in Britain and Ireland.
If Dawson’s elevation to the Lions’ captaincy was swift, he also disappeared just as quickly from the public consciousness. By 1961 this sober man who was known for never touching alcohol had lost the Ireland captaincy. But in his short time in the spotlight Dawson impressed everyone who played under him with his quiet charisma, his integrity and his tactical acumen.
He was a deep thinker about the game and it was no surprise when he later became the first full-time coach of Ireland and an important administrator of the game as it moved on its slow, painful path from amateurism to professionalism. Willie John McBride, who would become the most successful Ireland captain to lead the Lions, remembered Dawson as a “no-nonsense, uncomplicated sort of man” who had a real influence in New Zealand, where he led the tourists single-handedly in the days before coaches existed.
Dawson’s six Tests as captain remained a record until it was equalled by Martin Johnson. He won 27 caps for Ireland and donned the black and white jersey of the Barbarians 22 times, captaining them in their historic win over the Springboks in 1961, South Africa’s only defeat of their tour.
Dawson was born in Dublin and educated at St Andrew’s college in the city. At the Dublin Institute of Technology he later qualified as an architect and he worked as chief architect for the Bank of Ireland until his retirement. He married Wendy and joined Dublin’s Wanderers club in 1950, playing for the club until 1965. He also played 28 times for his province, Leinster, often as captain.
After maturing as a hooker at Wanderers and waiting for the international careers of Roe and Karl Mullen to end, Dawson made a memorable international debut for Ireland in 1958, scoring a try in the victory over the touring Australians.
The Ireland selectors recognised his leadership qualities and he was soon promoted to captain, inspiring a rousing victory over the eventual champions France, a game that sealed his Lions appointment.
In Sydney he scored another try against the Australians and impressed in New Zealand, where only the boot of Don Clarke prevented the Lions from winning the first Test in Dunedin. Ireland provided the bulk of the players on the tour and the Lions played some outstanding rugby. The contentious choice of Dawson as leader prevented Meredith from making the Test side, but the Irishman nonetheless burnished his reputation.
Dawson’s international playing career was brief, however. After returning from New Zealand he broke his leg in a practice game and faded from the international scene. But he remained closely associated with the Lions and after his playing days he was appointed as an assistant manager on the tour to South Africa in 1968. The 1960s saw a decline in standards in Britain and Ireland but Tom Kiernan’s 1968 Lions, with their young half-back partnership of Wales’s Gareth Edwards and Barry John, gave a good account of themselves despite losing three of the four Tests, with the management team of the colourful Harlequin David Brooks and Dawson making a big impression.
Dawson had spent a year compiling dossiers on the South African players. His methods were based on what he had seen in 1959 in New Zealand: highly organised sessions working on fitness in the mornings and unit skills in the afternoons. International rugby union in the northern hemisphere was at last emerging from the amateur and amateurish era.
On his return home, Dawson helped to develop coaching in Ireland and became the national side’s first coach in 1969, a role he occupied for three years. He excelled as an administrator and became the president of the Irish Rugby Football Union for the 1989-90 season. He served as Ireland’s representative on the Five Nations Committee for 20 years from 1973 and spent 20 years on the International Rugby Board, also playing a key role in organising rugby’s first World Cup in 1987. In 2013 he was inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame.
Wendy predeceased him. He is survived by his daughters, Sandra and Jackie, son, Nigel, and four grandchildren.
• Alfred Ronald Dawson, rugby player, coach and administrator, born 5 June 1932; died 11 October 2024
