Mike Blair keen to make his mark in Premiership

Mike Blair is counting down the days until he samples Premiership rugby at first hand for the first time with Newcastle.
Unlike his brother David, the former Sale fly-half, Scotland‘s most capped scrum-half with 85 Test appearances to his name has never graced English rugby’s top flight before.
In 2008 he toyed with the idea of joining Leicester but opted to stick with hometown Edinburgh instead, a decision that was vindicated by his subsequent nomination for the IRB Player of the Year award following a fine season for his club and as captain of Scotland, which culminated in a place on the Lions tour to South Africa.
When he eventually left Edinburgh after making more than 150 appearances for the capital club, the 32-year-old headed for Brive in France‘s second division, where last season he helped them win promotion back to the Top 14 in front of 34,000 fans in the Pro D2 final in Bordeaux.
By then he knew his future lay in England with Newcastle, who, like Brive, had worked their way back into the big time after a one-season stay in a lower league.
Now retired from international rugby, Blair is experiencing his first full pre-season for many a year, and the No.9 says every step taken now – and that includes the 200 plus he attempted to sprint up during a training session on the beach at South Shields – will serve him and his Falcons team-mates in good stead leading into the season’s opener against Bath on September 6.
“Retiring from international rugby meant there was no summer tour for me this year so I was here at Newcastle for the first week of pre-season training on July 1,” he told The Rugby Paper.
“We’ve had four/five good weeks so far and with another month before the first game there’s still plenty of time for us all to improve physically even more. Kevin McShane, our head of athletic performance, is putting us through our paces.
“I’ve found out I’m not too good at some of the non-rugby activities like sand dune running, which I managed to avoid in 11 of the 12 seasons I was at Edinburgh, and the steps at South Shields proved a challenge, too, but I’m really enjoying what has been put in place and we’re being well looked after.
“I’ve even boxed for the first time. Luckily I wasn’t paired against Chris Pilgrim because he’s pretty handy having boxed before to a decent standard.
“That said, I can’t say the three back-to-back tests we did on Monday were much fun: we had the yo-yo test in the morning, followed by the treadmill test, where you have to run as long as you can up a 20 degree incline at 13 km/hour, and then, even though your legs are completely gone, we had the five minute road test to see how far you can run in that amount of time.
“It was pretty horrific, but the end game is the same: to get fitter and be in great shape for the first game against Bath. Thankfully I didn’t embarrass myself!
“Matt Williams (the former Scotland coach) used to say you get paid to train and you played for the love of the game.”
Blair’s enthusiasm for the game is as strong as ever and he can’t wait to pull on a Falcons jersey for the first time in a competitive environment.
He added: “I moved to Newcastle purely for rugby reasons, whereas when I went to Brive the overriding factor was to experience a different lifestyle and culture.
“Soon we’re going to be heading off to France to play a warm-up game against Bath, so the rugby side of things will shortly be coming more into focus which is great.”
Newcastle’s pre-season fixture list will be an important time for Blair to stake a claim for the No.9 jersey.
Fellow Scotland international Rory Lawson retired this week but with twice-capped Wales scrum-half Warren Fury on board and the livewire Pilgrim fully recovered from serious injury, Newcastle are not short of quality options in Blair’s position.
“I watched quite a few Newcastle games last season and whoever played scrum-half did a great job,” he added.
“I feel I can still perform at the top level and this opportunity is a challenge that ticks all the boxes for me.”
JON NEWCOMBE