Matt Dawson insists he still wants to play for England despite being dropped for missing a training session. "There is no less commitment because I have missed one training session," said the 31-year-old scrum-half after Wasps' 35-26 victory over London Irish.
"There is still a huge passion and desire to play for England but my rugby priorities are with Wasps.
"If I'm good enough I'll be in. [Coach] Andy Robinson said the door is open and if he wants me to play, I will play."
Dawson admits it will be hard to get back in the starting side with main rivals Andy Gomarsall and Harry Ellis both in good form.
"It's as difficult as it always has been to get in the England side," he said. "All I can influence is what I do on a Saturday or Sunday in a black and gold jersey so that is what I will do.
Dawson missed Robinson's first training get-together owing to his television work as a captain on BBC TV's Question of Sport programme.
"All of my commitments to 'Question of Sport' were built around time I had off," Dawson added. "It always had been and always will be.
 |  For his fantastic service to English rugby he could have been accommodated for that one day |
"Exactly the same goes for last week but unfortunately the training days were changed and brought forward. It won't arise in the foreseeable future." Wasps director of rugby Warren Gatland believes Robinson needs Dawson to help his own chances of securing the head coach's position full-time.
"I don't think you can leave quality players out of the frame," said Gatland.
"These are an important three games for Andy and one of the things you don't want as a coach is to lose one of your top players out of the side.
"The team needs to perform well to secure his future as England coach and I think Matt can be a player who can give them that experience and help England perform to their potential.
"He had a long standing commitment for that date with the television, a long way before the English rugby session (was organised).
"I just felt that for his fantastic service to English rugby he could have been accommodated for that one day.
"We played on the Sunday and didn't get back from Leeds until 3.30 in the morning so none of our players trained anyway."
MMIX
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