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The Emirates Western Force has secured the services of Test prop Matt Dunning for the next two seasons.
Dunning adds a wealth of experience to the WA side after nine seasons with the NSW Waratahs, where he won 99 caps, including 90 appearances in Super Rugby.
The Canadian-born prop made his Test debut for the Wallabies during the 2003 Rugby World Cup and now has 43 caps to his name, the most recent of which came on the 2008 Spring Tour.
The versatile 115kg veteran suffered a cruel blow in the tour-ending clash with the Barbarians, rupturing his achilles tendon to leave him confined to the sidelines for the entire 2009 Super 14 season.
The 30-year-old recently returned to action for his NSW club side Eastwood, enjoying his first full hit-out in the clash with Sydney University during the recently completed round.
“I felt really good,” he said upon signing his deal with Perth-based team today.
“I’d played roughly a half game in each of my first two games (for Eastwood) but it was nice to get through the full eighty (minutes) on the weekend. There were a lot of scrums and I thought our scrum went well.
I’m happy that I’m feeling improvements with every game and I’m still very much hoping to be a part of the Wallabies this year,” he added.
Dunning says he hopes joining the Emirates Western Force will be the catalyst to re-igniting his Test career.
“I’m really looking to forward to the opportunity to be involved with a new team,” said the Beecroft-Cherrybrook junior.
“For a new team, the Force has been very successful. You need only look at the Wallabies squad now and they’ve got a quite a few young guys coming through.”
“They’ve got a really strong forward pack and I know blokes like ‘Sharpie’, ‘Browny’ and Dave Pocock really well,” he said.
Dunning said the Force’s recruitment of former Hurricanes prop Tim Fairbrother was another factor in luring him to the west.
“Signing Timmy Fairbrother was a good move by the club. He’s a quality prop and I’m a big believer that you need two good tightheads in your squad,” said Dunning.
Having played most of his career in the loosehead position, Dunning reinvented himself in 2008 by making a successful switch to tighthead, and it is there that he wants to remain in the future.
“I’ve focussed solely on tighthead since about round four of the 2008 Super 14 season and have enjoyed the switch. I’ll always have the ability to play loosehead but it’s a challenge that I’m still enjoying and I want to continue at tighthead,” he said.
Dunning will remain in Sydney to finish the season with Eastwood before relocating to Perth during the 2010 Super 14 pre-season.
“I’m really looking forward to getting to Perth and working with John Mitchell and the coaching staff. Throughout the negotiations I’ve been very impressed with the way they’ve spoken about their program and I feel that they’ve really bent over backwards to get me on board.”
RugbyWA General Manager, Rugby, Mitch Hardy, said Dunning is an experienced addition to the Emirates Western Force squad.
“Matt is a very experienced tighthead prop and a player who has been an integral part of the Wallabies for a number of years,” said Hardy.
“He’s been involved in two World Cups and has spearheaded a very good Waratahs scrum for the best part of a decade.”
“Not only that, we think he has plenty to offer our program off the field as well. Everyone who has had anything to do with Matt knows that he’s a tremendous bloke and one of the great characters in our game. He will be an extremely valuable addition to our squad.”
FACT FILE
Matt Dunning
Position: Prop
Physical: 182cm, 115kg
Age: 30 (Born 19/12/1978, Calgary, Canada)
Super Caps: 90
Super Points: 13 (2t, 1dg)
Super Debut: 2001 v Chiefs, Sydney
Test Caps: 43
Test Points: 0
Test Debut: 2003 v Namibia, Adelaide (RWC)
Representative Honours: Australian Schoolboys (1996), Australian Under 21s (1998-99), Wallabies (2003-08)
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Originally Posted by prop53
was not so much in the fact that he was a tough bugger in the front row, but more in what he taught the rest of our front row. I suspect that is a large part of the theory in signing Matt (and Tim for that matter) Glory days for the 
