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'I still have a lot of ambition': Cam Dodson keeping Scotland dream alive
By Joe Harvey
On the latest leg of his whirlwind rugby career, Cam Dodson is aiming for promotion to the Top 14 with Béziers.
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Halfway through the Pro D2 season the 28-year-old lock forward and his team are third in the competition and 10 points adrift of league leaders, Grenoble.
In his first season above the river Orb, Dodson has established himself as a regular for the team that battled all the way to the promotion semi-finals last season.
Joining Pierre Caillet’s team from Aurillac, where Dodson spent two seasons, Béziers know they will have their work cut out for them in a star-studded French second division.
Brive boast the talents of England centurion Courtney Lawes, Scotland centre Sam Johnson and former Springbok Curwin Bosch, while Jimmy Gopperth turns out for Provence with Izack Rodda (Australia) and Tomas Francis (Wales).
In contrast Béziers have no bona fide stars, with the squad made up of a smattering of English, Portuguese, Tongan, Spanish, Fijian, Argentine, New Zealand and South African talent alongside their French counterparts.
Béziers restart their league campaign this Friday with a visit from basement side Stade Niçois, with Dodson convinced that his side have the credentials to contend for promotion and take the club back to the top-flight for the first time in 20 years.
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“There is no doubt in my mind that if we click there is no weakness anywhere,” Dodson said. “100 per cent. I can’t see any reason we couldn’t challenge for the top.
“We probably don’t have on paper, the stars of other teams in the league. I have played in this league for three years; these boys are good. Very good.”
But there is an added sense of anticipation at the Stade Raoul-Barriere this season.
In November, an investment fund spearheaded by former All Blacks playmaker Andrew Mehrtens, ex-Springbok captain Bob Skinstad and ex-Formula 1 team runner Eddie Jordan took ownership of the club.
The trio’s buyout has brought a close to a tumultuous four years that saw the 11-time Top 14 champions bought by their local authority for €1 in 2021 after a proposed UAE takeover fell through.
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It is clear that this new ownership want to turn Béziers into contenders once again.
Jordan and co have also been linked with the purchase of felled Gallagher Premiership club London Irish as the consortium aims to emulate the success of the City Football Group.
Dodson and his teammates are yet to experience the immediate impact of the takeover.
But while that will come in time, the lock has seen a notable difference in the town and an increasing sense of expectation.
“There is a lot of unknown, but a lot of excitement as well,” Dodson said. “The club has a lot of rich history and there is a buzz that we have the new owners, new money and new ambitions.
“There is more excitement than anything, that we could be on the way up because it’s a team that have struggled for a long time. It is nice to see the buzz around the town again.
“Last year was huge for them, making the playoffs against Brive and Vannes.
“I think that has set the standard. That is the norm now and we are trying to get to the Top 14.
“There is a belief in the players, belief in the staff and belief around the place that if we do things right, it’s a very valid opportunity that we can go up.”
Dodson’s road to playing for a Pro D2 contender is anything but orthodox.
Born and raised in Staffordshire, Dodson was never picked up by an academy, did not attend a private school and was content playing club rugby for Stoke on Trent RUFC.
It was the decision to study in America that professional rugby came into full focus.
Attending Grand Canyon University in Arizona, the 6’7” forward’s dynamism and explosive athleticism caught the eye of the now-defunct Austin Gilgronis franchise in Major League Rugby.
Pro D2
P
W
L
D
PF
PA
PD
BP T
BP-7
BP
Total
1
Grenoble
16
12
4
0
56
2
Brive
15
10
5
0
46
3
Beziers
15
8
7
0
41
4
Provence Rugby
15
8
6
1
41
5
Soyaux Angouleme
15
8
5
2
39
6
Dax
15
9
6
0
39
7
US Montauban
16
8
8
0
36
8
Biarritz
15
9
6
0
35
9
Mont de Marsan
15
7
8
0
34
10
Colomiers
15
7
7
1
33
11
Agen
15
6
9
0
31
12
Aurillac
15
7
8
0
30
13
Oyonnax
15
6
9
0
28
14
USON Nevers
15
6
9
0
27
15
Valence Romans
15
5
10
0
24
16
Nice
15
3
12
0
17
In the Texan heat Dodson learned the ropes from head coach, Sam Harris, and ex-All Blacks Jamie ‘Whoppa’ Mackintosh and Isaac Ross, before making 24 appearances over two years.
“That first year in Austin, I sort of fell in love with playing professional rugby,” Dodson said.
“No one really came knocking on the door (in England), so I wasn’t going to chase it. I was very happy doing what I was doing.
“Then it was playing for Austin and seeing the potential that I could make a really good career out of this.
“Whoppa, he is a big influence, said if I wanted it, I could make a good career out of it.
“That was very big praise for me. After that it was an ‘all chips in’ kind of thing.”
Dodson’s time in Austin ended abruptly.
In 2022 the team was disqualified from the MLR Playoffs due to a “violation of league rules” and concluding what was supposed to be Dodson’s last hurrah in America with a move to Wasps in the offing.
Moving back to the West Midlands and signing a two-year contract, the 28-year-old was training alongside Joe Launchbury, Kiran McDonald and Elliott Stooke as he hoped to advance his career closer to home.
But after starting two Premiership Rugby Cup matches Dodson was left without a job when the club entered administration.
“Going from Austin to Wasps and both teams going under in the space of six months, it was a weird time,” Dodson said. “I thought I was cursed at one point, you know.
“I hadn’t made roots (at Wasps), I saw some of the lads that had been there since they were 12 and their faces when we were in that room and 350 people lost their jobs in one day,” Dodson said.
“It wasn’t as bad a situation for me as many other players. I hadn’t bought a house down there; I was looking and one Monday the suits came in from the bank and explained the situation. I was like, you know, ‘I’m going to hold off’ and three weeks later it was liquidated.
“If those situations didn’t happen, then I probably wouldn’t be here and enjoying my rugby as much. Everything happens for a reason.”
Within a month of Wasps going under, Dodson had secured himself a move to Aurillac in Pro D2.
“If I hadn’t been a Wasps player, I probably wouldn’t have got the offer to come to France,” Dodson said.
Arriving in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes as a medical joker on a three month deal, the 28-year-old did not know what to expect, but quickly found a sense of home on the Jordanne.
“I compare it to Stoke City,” Dodson laughed. “It’s the kind of club nobody wants to go to on a cold Friday night.
“I remember in my second game and the fog was so bad that you couldn’t see past the halfway line.
“I get why some people would get turned away from that, but I love that stuff.
“I really enjoyed that first three months because it was no pressure. I went in with an open mind and I really liked it.
“That set off my love for French rugby and I couldn’t see myself going back to England after that. Never say never, but right now I am pretty happy in France.”
Aside from a brief spell back in the USA to turn out for the Chicago Hounds in 2023, Dodson has quietly become a Pro D2 stalwart.
In all the 28-year-old has made 44 appearances in the competition, only two of those outings coming as a replacement and is loving every moment on the pitch.
Five seasons in professional rugby have told Dodson that anything that he can achieve anything he sets his mind to.
With plenty more gas in the tank, he sits back in his chair and takes a deep breath when asked what the next few years could have in store.
“I still have a lot of ambition,” Dodson smiled. “I want to play Top 14. That’s a big goal of mine.
“I’m signed with Béziers for two years now, getting promoted would be my top goal.
“Then there’s international rugby. I’m Scottish qualified (thanks to his father, Iain). That would be a huge thing for me. Just putting myself in the position to have those conversations.
“It might be a long way off now, but a few good games in Pro D2 and you never know.”
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