My Life in Rugby: Andrew Turnbull – former Scotland Sevens and Rotherham wing

When I turned up for my first World Rugby Sevens Series tournament in Hong Kong in 2004, I couldn’t believe my eyes.
Up until that point the biggest crowd I’d played in front of was the 1,000 or so hardy souls who’d regularly turn up to watch the Borders in the Celtic League, so to play in front of a packed house of 50,000 fans going wild under the floodlights was something else.
In those days, you warmed up at the end of the pitch and if you were at the south end you’d get pelted from all angles with the sponsors’ small foam rugby balls – quite an experience!
I loved Hong Kong and was fortunate to play there a few times, including the first of three Sevens World Cup tournaments. To play in two Commonwealth Games – Melbourne in 2006 and Delhi in 2010 – was another career highlight.
Rob Moffett was my coach at the Borders and the Scotland Sevens head coach when I first became involved. He’d also coached me with Scotland U19s and was like a second father to me. Roger Baird and Gary Callandar were also very influential as I was coming through as a young winger at Watsonians.
As an out-and-out gas man, my role was to cross the whitewash and I always set out to be the top try-scorer in every tournament. I was fortunate to do that in Dubai in 2011, touching down 10 times – including a hat-trick against Canada – to pass 100 tries for Scotland in the process.
The landmark had been looming for a while so it was a relief, and satisfying, when I finally got it.
At that stage, I’d just become one of the first batch of full-time contracted Scotland Sevens players under Graham Shiel. I was lucky the offer came in when it did because it was looking like I was going to be surplus to requirements at Edinburgh, where I’d struggled for game time.
There were a lot of big wingers around like Nikki Walker and Tim Visser had just appeared on the scene and, at 5ft 7in, I was struggling to compete physically.
Sevens gave me the space I craved, and opportunities to travel the world that otherwise I wouldn’t have had. It’s not like you get to be a tourist when you visit these cities, because you’re in and out in the space of a week, but it’s only when you look back you truly appreciate the amazing experiences you’ve had.
I scored 151 tries in 57 tournament appearances for Scotland before calling it a day once my pace deserted me. But, I’ll be the first to admit, that a lot of those tries wouldn’t have been possible without the input of my team-mates, particularly Colin ‘Budgie’ Gregor. Our careers pretty much overlapped and few people had the vision and ability to read a game as he did.
I was fortunate to have 12 great years as a rugby pro. Asides from an early knee injury, I barely spent any enforced time on the sidelines. Whilst Sevens is where most of my success came, I did enjoy 15s at various points.
I had a season with Rotherham in the English Championship the year the team finished second to Leeds. I was hoping to make more of an impression from a personal perspective but I don’t think I was mature enough to do the ‘extras’ required when you’re placed in a part-time environment.
Even so, it was good to be involved with a talented bunch who gave winning the League such a good crack. Returning to Scotland after one season down south, I was also part of the Edinburgh team that finished second in the Celtic League.
But Sevens is where my heart is and it’s great to see the sport take off as it has done over the last few years.