Rebel Dawson won't back down

Captain Martin Johnson said: 'Matt has made his peace with the management and the players as far as I am concerned.

'He expressed regret at what he had done. He was very honest, up-front and remorseful. The team and the management accepted what he said.'

The Lions say they will take internal action against Dawson, whose tour diary, published on Saturday morning, criticised head coach Graham Henry ('doesn't inspire me at all') and manager Donal Lenihan ('treated us like kids').

A pre-tour 'good behaviour' bonus of £2,000 a man had been built into players ' contracts.

The England scrum half, a non- playing substitute during the Lions' 29-13 victory on Saturday night, spent yesterday morning in a private meeting with Lenihan.

His appearance before the full 50-man Lions complement followed more talks with Lenihan in the afternoon and he will be considered for the last non-Test fixture, against Super-12 champions ACT Brumbies in Canberra tomorrow. The more explosive revelations of his diary provoked claims yesterday that six Lions, almost certainly all drawn from outside their Test 22, wanted to go home in protest against the harsh training regime.

Former Wallaby winger David Campese said he was 'told by some friends in the Lions camp that six players wanted to leave because they were so fed up with the management'.

Lenihan denied that any such request had been made but admitted there had been problems.

He said: 'Let's be honest, there have been difficulties in terms of the workload we have had to impose.

'There have been some frustrations and we'd be lying if we said we were not aware of them.You have 37 international players all desperate to be in the Test team.

'You don't get a new group of players and coaches to gel without putting the work in on the training ground.

'We had to make sacrifices. The result of that was there for everyone to see on Saturday. 'You don't get time to relax and let your hair down. There is an awful lot of tension involved 'There have been times when we have had to give priority to preparing for the Tests to the

detriment of some midweek matches. The success or failure of the tour rests on the Test results and the players respect that.

'I have to say I was extremely disappointed with the timing of the article.

'Having seen it in the cold light of day, Matt was very remorseful. We will deal with it internally. 'Matt probably feels that he has let himself down. He has apologised to all the coaches individually.

'I don't think there are 15 of them quite in the same boat as Matt Dawson. Some of the boats are smaller, some of them may be bigger.

'There are a couple of disappointed players, no doubt about that.' On the issue of players writing articles, Lenihan said: 'If you have a contract of employment with somebody that pre-dates your Lions contract, then we cannot force them to break that contract.

'A number of players have these articles, and you cannot stand over everyone and control what they are writing.' Wales flanker Colin Charvis, cited by a neutral comissioner over an incident during his appearance as a late substitute, was given a two-match ban yesterday for illegal use of the knee against Wallaby prop Nick Stiles.

The punishment puts him out of tomorrow's match and Saturday's second Test in Melbourne.