Underdog tag is fine by Barclay
IF JOHN BARCLAY hears ‘Flower of Scotland’ being sung with a Welsh accent today, in the capital of Ireland, it will signify that the Scarlets are in shock-and-awe mode again — and that he is signing off in style.
For a lifetime wanderer, Llanelli to Edinburgh is not an epic voyage, but that is what awaits this summer. By then, he will hope to have secured another league title with his region and appeared in the Champions Cup Final in Bilbao, providing the last British side in Europe’s showcase event this season can upset Irish tournament favourites Leinster in Lansdowne Road today.
Barclay is the Scottish Test captain with a fervent following in west Wales. It helps that he inspired the downfall of the English at Murrayfield during the Six Nations.
‘I think we’re all Celtic brothers,’ he said. ‘When I came back after the game against England, I was walking down the front in Mumbles with my dog and my middle son, and people were beeping the horn and shouting stuff. Everyone was speaking to me about the rugby; saying well done.’
In an area where many people speak the native language, Barclay has to rely on the eldest of his three sons for linguistic support. ‘I know a few words in Welsh, but Finlay has been to a Welsh school,’ he said. ‘The first day we took him there, I was thinking, “I feel so bad for him” because all the kids were speaking Welsh and straight away the teacher was speaking in Welsh too. He was looking at me and I was just like, “mate, you’re on your own!”.
‘But he loves it now. His pals come round and they’ll all be speaking Welsh. He won’t speak it to me, but if Scotty Williams came round, he’d speak Welsh to him.’ Barclay jokingly describes the family travels when he was growing up as ‘ridiculous’. He was born in Hong Kong — where the Sevens tournament was the first rugby to appear on his young radar — before a meandering path through Belgium, Switzerland, Hong Kong again, Kuala Lumpur, the Philippines, London, Shanghai and Scotland.
After leaving boarding school, he suddenly — confusingly — found himself pitched into the Scotland squad; despite no senior-level experience at all. ‘I was phoned and told I was in the squad for the autumn,’ he said. ‘I thought they meant the Under 19s. I got there and was told, “You are the youngest person in the Scotland squad for over 20 years”.
‘The next week, I played for a local team, and the older guys in the opposition really took me down a peg or two. They were all saying, “Who the f*** is this? Let’s get into him”.
‘I’d just left school and not even played men’s rugby. It probably wasn’t the best plan for me — it just put me on a pedestal to get knocked off it.’ Following that in-at-the-deepend episode, Barclay found his feet in the game, only for a freak accident to deny him a shot at England in 2008 — the last time the Scots won the Calcutta Cup, before this year.
‘I was on a sofa with a wine glass in my hand,’ he said. ‘Someone just sat down on my hand and the wine glass shattered. It sliced my hand to pieces. I was gutted.’
In career terms, Barclay’s moves have been of the shorthaul variety; Glasgow to the Scarlets in 2013 and back to Edinburgh in June this year — to link up with ‘pitbull’ Richard Cockerill. He has prospered in Llanelli. The Scarlets have harnessed an adventurous streak which has also been a hallmark of Gregor Townsend’s Scotland. Barclay plays his breakdown poaching part and fits in well with the high-octane chaos.
The pool-stage thrashing of Bath summed up the threat posed by Wayne Pivac’s cavaliers. ‘I got sin-binned and while I was off, we scored 14 points,’ he said. ‘I was just sat there watching it thinking, “This is crazy”. Guys were offloading all over the place.
‘With Scotland, Gregor tries to push the envelope and down here with the Scarlets, we have the players who can do that. It is tiring, but it’s much worse to defend against.’
Pivac is tipped to take over from another Kiwi, Warren Gatland, as Wales’ next head coach. Barclay lauded his man-management credentials and the way he has created a band-ofbrothers ethos. ‘He’s happy for us to go out and have a beer together,’ he said. ‘He understands the importance of building bonds within the squad.’
The Scarlets go into this afternoon’s encounter as optimistic outsiders, having stunned both Leinster and Munster in Dublin to win the league last year.
‘We went into those games so confident and relaxed, and we’ll be the same this weekend,’ said Barclay. ‘We will enjoy being underdogs and being written off.’
“We’re relaxed,
we enjoy being written off”