England’s legendary scrum-half Matt Dawson was a proud man today as his Godson James Grayson made his home debut during Northampton Saints 24-11 win against local rivals Leicester Tigers at Franklin’s Gardens.
Saints started strongly with Luther Burrell going over early on, and England skipper Dylan Hartley doubling the lead, before George Ford and Harry Mallinder traded penalties.
Ford kicked another penalty even though Tigers had Mike Williams sin-binned. But Saints dominated as Tom Collins swept over before Jonny May’s consolation try late on for Tigers.
Making his debut at Twickenham last weekend, Grayson got to make his first senior appearance at the ground where his Dad Paul Grayson made his name as a player, making 114 appearances for Saints between 1997 and 2005 while also winning 32 England caps.
The fly-half first came onto our radar when he scored 21 points to help England U18s beat Wales in Swansea to win the inaugural Five Nations festival in 2016.
A very proud godfather watching @JaamesGrayson10 grab 5 mins for a Franklins debut in @premrugby 👊🏼 pic.twitter.com/z10T9nA50S
— Matt Dawson (@matt9dawson) September 9, 2017
Dawson and Grayson were teammates for both England and Northampton in the late 1990’s, early 2000’s, becoming well known best friends in that time.