Call me The Stag – but I was stuck with Bambi
MY LIFEIN RUGBY
THE FORMER SCOTLAND SEVENS INTERNATIONAL AND GLASGOW HAWKS/WARRIORS, WATERLOO AND BEDFORD BACK ROWER
IT'S been great watching the Rugby Sevens at the Olympics just now. I don't think anyone could have asked for a better showcase for the sport with sell-out crowds at the Stade de France and an Antoine Dupont-inspired home win. Back in the early days of the World Series, when playing in the Olympics would have been a distant dream, it wasn't unusual at all for XVs players to play 7s and I can personally vouch for its value in developing players because I got to represent Scotland on the World Series, while still a student at Strathclyde University. I'm a massive fan of that format of the sport and it's great to see it go from strength to strength.
I have to say I was a bit star struck by it all when I was called up in 2001. Anyone versed in Scottish rugby history – and my dad made sure I was – would know all there is about the then team manager Roy Laidlaw. There were some fantastic players in the sevens squad led superbly by Mark Lee; Roy's son Clark was a team-mate, as was Mike Blair, and it's great to see how fantastically well Clark is doing in coaching over in New Zealand.
While I obviously took huge pride from pulling on the dark blue jersey, one of the my most cringeworthy moments of my career came at the London 7s when I scored my one and only try against the West Indies. The boys gave it the old air rifle try celebration salute but the big screen only showed me taking imaginary aim and pulling the trigger back at them, much to my embarrassment. The boys still wind me up about it whenever I bump into them. I also got to play against Australia in the next leg in Wales. That whole experience was really cool but also very intense. I actually sat one of my final exams while I was down in Cardiff.
I was fortunate that a few opportunities came my way maybe before my time, whether it was getting called up by the school 1st XV, which felt like such a big deal, or making my debut for Glasgow Hawks, aged 19. I was fortunate that I had players looking out for me, in particular an Ireland A prop called Gavin Walsh who dragged me around the lineouts, threw me up in the air and generally made sure I was all right. He was the same with all the younger lads and we learnt so much from him as he'd been around the block and was a proper old-school competitor. At that stage, I was just enjoying the ride playing under a great coach in Shade Munro.
In my fifth year of club rugby I had a particularly good game, which just so happened to be on the telly, and out of the blue Glasgow Warriors came in with a contract offer. To say it was an eye opener is an understatement as I'd never had a proper gym session before then. My first season was a bit of a bench year so I made a determined effort to work really hard and make my next season a breakthrough one. Unfortunately, a catalogue of injuries put paid to that and I was released, understandably so because I hadn't fired a shot.
“I'm a massive fan of sevens and it's great to see it go from strength to strength”
It hadn't been the experience that I had hoped or envisaged but through a contact in Aberdeen I got a fresh start with the famous Manly Rugby Club in Australia, and that's where I rediscovered my love of rugby. The club is about a stone's throw from the beach and is right in the heart of Sydney, so what's not to love, right? I also met my future wife, Nina, while I was over there on the tourist trail in Fiji. Any savings I had ran out pretty quickly during my time in Oz, so I was up at 4am cleaning apartments, then labouring for the day and training at night. I think I was only about 100kgs at that stage but as fit as a fiddle.
Skint and keen to move back to Europe (Nina is from Germany), we left Australia behind us and headed to Scotland. Initially I hooked up with Aberdeen Grammar but then my agent Shaun Longstaff sorted me out a contract with Venezia Mestre Rugby FC in Italy. Food is another of my passions and you get really well looked after in that respect. You'd finish training and then get your fill with a three-course meal. We had a super time and on the pitch I was enjoying myself, too, as it was good fast and physical rugby and I was playing every week. Thankfully, one of my old Glasgow Hawks team-mates had settled out there and he was able to translate for me in meetings. But the language barrier and the realisation that I wanted to give pro rugby another go led to us returning home again to the UK, this time to Merseyside and Waterloo.
Waterloo had just been promoted from the third division in what is now the Championship. We had some fantastic players such as Freeman Payne and Pete Murchie to name just two but the club wasn't really set up the way it needed to be set up to cope with the demands of playing at a higher level.
For some reason there had been a change of coach, despite the promotion, and the new guy, Mick Melrose, didn't really fit in. He was a nice guy and I knew he came from a good rugby family as his brother had been at Manly the same time as me. But he lasted only four or five matches and that left us in a bit of limbo. We only won three of our 30 games, including a win against Exeter. I think they were as surprised as we were! Nevertheless, the camaraderie remained strong amongst the group with characters like Martin ‘Cakes' O'Keefe always ready to entertain us with his stories over a few drinks in the nook behind the clubhouse.
The Championship was everything I expected it to me. I loved the uniqueness of every club and the craic you had with your opposite number in the clubhouse afterwards. It was a brutally long season of 15 matches at home and 15 away, which is exactly what I wanted and needed at that stage in my career. Bedford was a step up, there's no doubt about it, but they still knew how to socialise and some of the bus trips we had were legendary. We normally had a double-decker bus and the card school was on the lower deck. I think I ventured down once and learnt my lesson.
Much to my dismay, I'd picked up the nickname Bambi in my early days in Scotland, which was all down to a newspaper report describing how I had come of age, turning from Bambi into a stag. I thought, ‘great, I'll be known as The Stag from now on'. But you don't get to choose your own nicknames, that's not how it works. But at least Bambi was replaced by Porridge – or any other Scottish-related theme the prop Marco Cecere could think of – during my time at the Blues. You had two things in your advantage as a Bedford player – the notorious slope and the support of a great rugby town. Captaining the Blues in the Mobbs Memorial Match was a personal highlight.
By time I left I was 30. I'd made decision to return to Scotland and have a few seasons back at the Hawks, the club that was dear to me. I had a blast and I also got to represent Scotland for the third time in my career following the U19s and 7s with the Scotland Clubs XV.
After I stopped playing, I quickly moved into coaching and rugby development and have been really fortunate to coach in the male and female pathway programmes in recent years. The highlight has definitely been my involvement with the Women's National U18 programme and coaching at the first U18 Six Nations Festival.
It's great to see more investment heading into the women's game and to see players progress from that programme into the senior national team.
I loved my time on the pitch, not just playing but everything else that comes with it – the friendship, the travel and the life experiences that you just wouldn't have without rugby. I feel the same about coaching. Nina and I have three children, Kalle, Elsa and Struan and I am fortunate that rugby is still my job, as head of rugby at Robert Gordon's College in Aberdeen. It's my old school so I have gone back to where it all began, which is pretty cool to be honest. Chris Cusiter and Ruaridh Jackson are both former pupils, and Gregor Brown who got his first Scotland cap on this summer's tour is one of ours as well. He left before I started so I can't claim any of the credit!
