Leicester in dilemma over Dawson

Leicester will decide today whether to accuse Northampton's Matt Dawson over an incident which threatens to put their leading try-scorer out of Saturday's Premiership hat-trick finale.

The England scrum half's fate rests on how the Tigers view videotape footage of the knee in the back of Irish wing Geordan Murphy, who shuffled out of the dressing room with his lower back in spasm after missing the second half of a gruelling game won 12-9 by Leicester.

Ironically, the fuss they kicked up over Saracens' action against Martin Johnson before Christmas will make the champions doubly reluctant to use a system which they rightly adjudge to be flawed and will remain so until the responsibility is taken away from the competing clubs and put in the hands of a neutral citing commissioner. Assuming he believes there is a case to answer, manager Dean Richards is much more likely to ask Northampton to deal with it in-house.

Murphy said: 'I don't think Dawson went out intentionally to injure me. I got tackled a yard or two short and the boys tell me he came in with his knee. Matt's not the type of player to do that deliberately. Maybe it was just one of those things.' Dawson said: 'If Leicester want to take it further, that's up to them. I would be surprised if they did because I did not deliberately go in and knee-drop anyone.' Late, close-range penalties twice gave Northampton the chance of a draw but stand-in goal-kicker Dawson missed.