Why this Six Nations is now a family business
Links to the past are all around – with Scotland having the closest ties, writes Richard Bath
Thanks to the influence of Andy and Owen Farrell the theme of fathers and sons has been constant throughout this Six Nations. But the England captain and Irish assistant coach are far from the only examples of the fact that rugby, more than any other sport, is a family affair.
A fortnight ago the Hastings family were in the spotlight and ahead of his Murrayfield debut, fly-half Adam was asked whether there was anything he could learn from watching his father Gavin in his pomp. The 22-year-old could not resist a snigger. “Nah, I don’t watch telly in black and white,” he laughed.
Hastings Jnr is unlikely to have been the only player to express similar sentiments this month. Five teams in the Six Nations contain at least one player with a brother, father or uncle who also represented their country at rugby. Four teams have several such players, while some players – such as Hastings, whose father won 67 caps for Scotland and played for the British Lions, as did his uncle Scott – have multiple familial links to their national team.
Scotland, more than any other nation, has a history of family connections. To date, at least 49 sets of brothers have played rugby for the country (including several twins, three sets of three brothers, while four Neilson brothers were capped in the 1890s).
Andy Nicol’s grandfather played for Scotland, 1990s flanker Iain Morrison’s great-grandfather Mark Morrison captained both Scotland and the Lions, skipper Greig Laidlaw’s uncle is legendary Scotland scrum-half Roy, while Sean Lineen and Martin and John Leslie all have fathers who played for the All Blacks, and former Scotland hooker John Allan’s son Tommaso currently plays for Italy.
So far, at least 16 sons and fathers have played for Scotland, with two sets in the team who took on Italy (while hooker Jake Kerr’s father John played on the wing for Scotland A). Other offspring of former Scotland players, such as Graham Shiel’s son, Charlie, are in the pipeline.
The moment when your son makes his debut is an emotional time, to judge by the reaction of former Scotland prop George Graham, a man whose passion for his nation runs sufficiently deep that 26 years ago he staged a last-minute dash from Carlisle to his home town of Stirling so that his heavily pregnant wife could give birth in Scotland.
“I called Dad straightaway, and I heard him screaming down the phone,” says Gary Graham of the moment he was selected for the squad to face Italy before winning his first cap off the bench. “I then saw him after the game and he was bawling his eyes out, saying how proud he was. It was a really special moment.”
All the sides in this Six Nations except Ireland have a crossgenerational element (although some of the country’s most famous rugby families – the Woods, Fitzgeralds, Kiernans and Murphys – saw father and son wear the green).
The Youngs, Farrell and Ford families are all central to England’s prospects, Italian back row Marco Barbini’s father was capped in the 1970s, while Wasps director of rugby Dai Young has admitted to being emotional watching his son Thomas start for Wales in Rome
saw my dad after my Scotland debut and he was bawling his eyes out, saying how proud he was’
last weekend. Even the French are getting in on the act with Romain Ntamack, son of the legendary Emile, being hailed as a new superstar upon making his debut against Wales. He then had to endure the other French tradition of being summarily dropped after a woeful second-half capitulation.
However, Scotland still stands alone as a nation where dynasties of brothers or fathers and sons have appeared disproportionately frequently. As well as Hastings, Laidlaw, Kerr and Graham, there are three sets of Scottish brothers (the Grays, Hornes and Fagersons) who would be in the current Scottish squad if all were fit.
The obvious question is whether it is down to nature or nurture. Hastings, for instance, spent his childhood kicking a ball around in the family’s back garden in Edinburgh with luminaries such as his father’s international team- mates Gregor Townsend and Craig Chalmers. Yet although he had a rugby ball in his hand almost from the moment when he could first walk, his father Gavin says there was never any pressure on him to follow in his father’s footsteps.
“I’m his dad and he’s only known me as his dad,” explains Hastings Snr. “I’ve never put any pressure on him to go out and succeed, achieve or whatever. All I have tried to do is point him in the right direction, occasionally pushing him when I felt it was perhaps needed. I’m just a very proud parent. I’ve been there and done it myself so I know a bit about what he’s going through. It’s a great moment for all of the family, but it’s not about me, it’s about him.”
For the sons of famous fathers, there is always a worry that they are trading on their family name. Adam Hastings was no exception. “I did struggle with it when I was younger,” he admitted. “I did let it get to me a bit. It was hard to know whether you were actually a good player or if you were just getting picked because of that link. As you get older you realise coaches are not stupid enough to do that.”
Any idea that sons of famous fathers get a free pass is debunked by 26-year-old Gary Graham’s rise to prominence. He grew up in a tough council estate in Carlisle while father George played for Newcastle, his attempts to break into the big-time seeing him working as an electrician for seven years while playing for Carlisle and then Gala, where dad George was coaching. His first pro rugby came at 22 when he joined the Jersey Reds on £18,000 a year.
Graham believes that the relentless drumbeat of his father’s criticism has been instrumental in his success. “Dad’s my biggest critic, but I think that has probably got me to where I am,” said Graham Jnr. “He used to drive me hard when I was at Gala and even at Newcastle he watches all my games back and tells me what I’ve done wrong. I’ve never had a good game according to my dad.”