Gordon shrugs off daunting Leinster task
WHEN you find yourself in a bit of a rut, there is a danger of overthinking things, which can lead to second- guessing yourself. That is not a trap Glasgow Warriors flanker Tom Gordon is likely to fall into as he looks ahead at what his team must do to bounce back from last weekend’s 1932 home defeat to Leinster by picking up only their second win of the campaign away to unbeaten Ulster in round five of the PRO14 on Monday night.
“We’re gonna run it up the guts, smash some people and score some tries,” was his emphatic reply, when asked about the game- plan for the trip to Belfast.
“I think we’re still building,” he added. “To be honest, I just go out there and try to play to win and if it doesn’t happen, well, life goes on and we have next week to try and improve on it.”
There is a good chance that Gordon will be up against Jordi Murphy on Monday, who is a highly experienced open- side flanker with 30 Ireland caps to his name. “I think I played against him once in the semifinal a couple of years ago, but I don’t really know much about him,” shrugged the Glasgow Warriors man. “I think he has played for Ireland a few times, but I’m not 100 per cent sure.”
It should be stated that there is not a hint of arrogance in Gordon’s perspective here, just a refreshing honesty. He is an archetypal Kiwi rugby player in the sense that he tackles whatever comes across his line of vision and doesn’t waste any time worrying about peripheral considerations such as achievements and reputation.
“That’s pretty much the case,” he confirms. “Unless it is someone who is one of the top in the world, then it starts playing on your mind, but in week- to- week games: they are humans, that bleed, so
I just go out and play.”
Gordon arrived in Scotland from his native New Zealand as a wide- eyed 17- year- old back in 2014 and joined Premiership club Currie, where his mother’s cousin John Muir is a former president and 1st XV manager. It was meant to be a six- month gig before returning home to go to university, but he is still here, and has now been joined by his younger brother Connor, who played Super6 rugby for Stirling County pre- lockdown. “Rugby wasn’t actually the priority when I arrived in Edinburgh, it was just going to be something to do while I was here, but then I ended up playing Scotland Under- 18s, and making some good mates, and really enjoying myself, so decided to stay for longer – and it has kind of worked out in the end,” he explained.
After a couple of years in the Scottish Rugby Academy programme then on a partnership contract with Warriors, during which time he continued to turn out for Currie, Gordon became a full- time member of the Glasgow squad during the 2018- 19 season. Competing against Callum Gibbins and Chris Fusaro for the No. 7 jersey, he struggled for gametime, but those opportunities he did get were enough to persuade national team head coach Gregor Townsend Six Nations squad before lockdown.
This season, under new head coach Danny Wilson, he appears set for a more prominent role in the side. He missed the opening game of this PRO14 campaign because he was isolating following a possible Covid exposure, but has been an ever- present in the starting XV since then. “Last season I was really keen on trying to get a string of games together but it never h a p p e n e d because we had breaks or various o t h e r reasons,” he said. “I wanted to get my body battle- hardened. I wouldn’t say I am 100 percent at the moment, but I’ll just keep on keeping on.”