‘HELLUVA COACH’
For a fleeting moment it looked like Sean Lamont was about to go out in a blaze of fairytale glory as he burst into spaceand,inaperoxideflash, surged through the first line of the Edinburgh defence.
The36-year-oldwingwasn’t long off the bench in this his farewell appearance on Saturday evening, but it wasn’t long before the incursion was covered and hopes of one last try in what has been a glittering career. which has 105 Scotland caps as its shining centrepiece, were dashed.
“I was thinking ‘just run’,” said Lamont as he faced the media for one last time in a playing capacity after Saturday’s 29-18 loss to Edinburgh. “With younger legs I might have finished it but I got to a certain point and thought ‘God, what do I do here?’
“I can’t step any more. But I milked the penalty nicely. I’ve never been the most gifted in the skills department but I could always run the ball.”
Despite the loss, Glasgow ended the season with the 1872 Cup in their hands following a 43-41 aggregate victory and Lamont said he was at peace with the decision to call it a day.
“It’s just one of these things, what do you say? I’m done. I’m happy about it in some ways, maybe because it hasn’t sunk in yet,” he reflected.
“I certainly won’t miss running around. Hopefully I will have some more energy and I can actually play with my kids now. There’s nothing worse than coming home knackered and they say ‘daddy come do this’ and I’m like ‘ugh’.
“I’ll miss the boys, that’s the big one. The camaraderie we’ve got here, similar to a lot of clubs. You go from seeing these guys every day for long periods and then that’s it. It’s not quite a dead stop, but it’s not far from it. Things move on and that’s it.”
Lamont, whose two spells at Glasgow sandwiched stints at Northampton and Scarlets, hopes to move on into the world of strength and conditioning coaching.
“Hopefully. Nothing is confirmed yet but it wouldn’t be here at Glasgow, no,” explained Lamont.
0 Capped 105 times, Lamont leaves a legacy of 14 Scotland tries
“Hopefully within Scottish Rugby, that’s the masterplan but nothing is set in stone yet. I couldn’t coach my mates. I’ve always been kinda to my own schedule so the crap they would give me if I told them to do something, things I didn’t do myself! That would be difficult.
“It’s a poacher turned gamekeeper situation but I’m looking forward to it. I’ve enjoyed my career. I really have. If you asked me last year I would have said I could do with another two, three seasons. Then all of a sudden this year, especially the last few months, maybe because I have a job lined up, age maybe, I don’t know, there’s definitely a wind down and a realisation I’m done.”
Lamont has been a unique, occasionally maverick, character in Scottish rugby over the past decade and a half and tipped coach Gregor Townsend to be a success
“I’venotalwaysseen eyetoeyewithgregor butifi’vepushed himhalfasmuchas he’spushedmethen he’sgoingtobea helluvacoachatthe international level”
SEAN LAMONT