Lions captain Martin Johnson has criticised the team management of this year's tour to Australia and said he would have quit if Matt Dawson had been sent home.
Dawson was fined and reprimanded over a newspaper column that included criticism of tour manager Donal Lenihan and coach Graham Henry. Dawson had feared he would be sent home. He was fined £3,000 sterling and made to apologise to the team.
In an extract from his book "Agony and Ecstasy" published in today's Daily Mail, Johnson said: "If the management had put him [Dawson] on a plane, I would have been on the seat next to him, and I like to think that the rest of the squad would have been too".
England captain Johnson said the training regime was a factor in their losing the series 2-1 and said he was surprised at the number of Welsh players named in the squad.
"I found sticking to Graham's plans difficult at times. I would catch myself running around thinking, 'should I be there, or should I stay where I am?' instead of just seeing what was happening and playing it accordingly," he said.
"Others had the same problem. Many were worried about making a mistake and going into the wrong phase. This overloaded us at times and caused a kind of mental paralysis as we tried to avoid going wrong".
Johnson also admitted that after beating Henry's Welsh side in the Six Nations in February he did not expect to see so many Welsh players named in the squad for Australia.
"A surprisingly high number of Welsh players had been chosen from what was by no means their strongest side of recent years," he said.
"After our 44-15 Six Nations victory in Cardiff, the consensus was that the Welsh players who should be on the trip were the back-row forwards Scott Quinnell and Colin Charvis, scrumhalf Rob Howley, wing Dafydd James and centre Scott Gibbs.
"But, as it turned out, a further five Welshman were also chosen".