BILL McLAREN taught me at primary school and I played a bit of rugby there, but it wasn’t until I was 20, that I started to play properly.
The first night I went down to Hawick Trades, a now defunct
social rugby club, me and a mate were parked up in my little Ford Fiesta before
training and I said, ‘do you fancy it?’ and he said ‘nah’. So we went back to
the Conservative Club (where we’d been playing snooker) and had a couple more
pints. The coach asked us to go back again, and this time I actually put my
boots on.
Once I got into rugby, I enjoyed it, especially the physical
aspect. Having played basketball, I had good handling skills. From there, it
was on to Hawick, where former Scotland international and coach Ian Barnes
instilled the professionalism in me that enabled me to go further.
I signed my first pro contract with the Borders and was
capped during my four years there, but I felt my international prospects would
be improved if I moved on. This was reinforced when I was dropped after we’d
beaten England at Murrayfield in 2006 in what was my second start.
My first season at Scarlets was brilliant, going through a
really difficult Heineken Cup Pool unbeaten. The home-and-away games against
Toulouse were special. I scored in front of my parents at home and we turned
around a huge half-time deficit at their place. We then beat Munster, the
defending champions, in the quarter-final. I helped set up a try, and the
commentator said, “what a performance, you’ll go to bed dreaming about Scott
Macleod’s offload!”
I was also enjoying my best run of games in a Scotland
jersey but then the drugs thing screwed me. I’d had asthma all my life but
there was a shortage of my usual medication and I was temporarily prescribed a
different inhaler, which was perfectly legal. A simple oversight on my part meant
I forgot to record it on the relevant form. The same test also showed I had
high levels of testosterone – triggered by alcohol consumption the night before
after I’d just found out I was to be a father for the first time.
I had abnormally high levels anyway so when they doubled,
alarm bells rang. It took a lot of time and money to clear my name but the
damage was done. I’m so against drugs in sport but it was difficult to escape
the dark cloud hanging over me, and we returned to Scotland.
My only goal after that was to get capped again. I played
well against Japan in a friendly and Andy Robinson picked me for the tour to
Argentina. I came on for about 25 minutes in the second Test and made a crucial
lineout steal in the last play of the game as we hung on for the win. After
what I’d gone through, that win felt really special.
My final start for Scotland was against South Africa in
2010. I’d always respected the Victor Matfield/Bakkies Botha combination and
knew how tough it would be. I was having my best half for Scotland, but Botha
got me in a DDT (wrestling) move and my ribs popped out. I couldn’t breathe.
Game over. But winning that game probably got me my contract in Japan which I
chose over Toulon.
My nephew Darcy Graham, and Mark Wilson, keep sending me
photos back from Kobe, my old stomping ground, and it brings back fond memories
of my time there.
With my daughter ready to start school, we decided to move
back and I joined Newcastle, picking up the Coaches’, Supporters’ and Players’
Player of the Year awards in my first season when we won the Championship. I
struggled a bit in the Premiership; I was a bit too light and getting older, so
I started to transition into coaching. I’m enjoying my role at the Falcons,
taking care of the lineouts and helping Micky (Ward) with the forwards.
When I look back on my playing days, I cannae complain. I
was part of the first Scotland team to win a series in the southern hemisphere;
I played England twice and beat them twice and in my last start, we beat South
Africa. I’ll take that.
– as told to Jon Newcombe
