Into the light
Zander Fagerson on the return of rugby after 161 days during which some of his Glasgow Warriors team-mates were in ‘pretty dark places’
Zander Fagerson could see only darkness. As Scotland’s tight-head prop, the fulcrum of the scrum, his place of work naturally lacks light – but this was different. Covid caused him to fear for rugby’s future.
“I’ll be brutally honest: there were times during lockdown when I really didn’t know where my next game was going to be coming from and I got pretty down,” says the 29-cap forward. “I thought: ‘That’s it, I’m not going to play again, I’m not going to be able to pay the mortgage, provide for my family, all that adult stuff… ’”
Because rugby is the most socially-undistanced of sports, Fagerson struggled to visualise a place for it beyond the pandemic. He looked at football’s nervous, uncertain return with its rules about no hugging during the goal celebrations and the day when he could once again anchor the dark blue pack – rubbing stubble with his opposite number and able to discern whether the fellow had brushed his teeth beforehand – seemed a long way off and maybe unreachable.
Even the early sessions back training with Glasgow Warriors offered little consolation, just running and yet more running and hardly knowing his team-mates were there. “We were allocated ten-metre channels, tin walls either side 7ft high so we couldn’t see each other. Up and up, up and down for a month. That was surreal, like we were in prison – solitary confinement.”
But here he sits in his front room looking forward to today’s resumption of topclass rugby in Scotland with an intercity Pro14 clash with Edinburgh at Murrayfield. For long enough he has been counting the days since his last game. “It’ll be 161 all told,” he confirms. Now at last he can count the hours until his next one.
Scotland’s Six Nations came to a juddering halt after the 28-17 victory over France in March. “The last good thing I did was win a scrum-pen, which I was pretty chuffed about,” says Fagerson. “Then it was Wales, the uncertainty right up until the captain’s run, being told the game wasn’t happening and a 12-hour bus journey back up the road – tremendous fun.”
We’re talking on Zoom, Fagerson apologising for being late for our appointment – he was playing in the garden in Bearsden with his daughter Iona and lost track of time. It’s good for any rugby enthusiast to be renewing acquaintance with his apple cheeks, crinkly-eyed smile and no-nonsense buzzcut, all the more so because they are in such marked contrast with the features of actress Sofia Vergara who pops up when you Google Fagerson, a consequence of him once having nominated the
sex-bomb as the person with whom he’d most want to be stuck in a lift (because she’s “hilarious” of course).
Fagerson speaks well for one only 24 and says he knows other players found lockdown far tougher. “I’ve got a family, a garden, a couple of dogs. If you’re a single guyinaflatyoudon’thavesuchdistractions and comforts. I’ve spoken to a few of these boys and they were in some pretty dark places. They’re very, very relieved to have rugby back.”
Fagerson will never forget the spring and early summer of 2020 for obvious reasons, but it wasn’t all despondency. His family increased in size during lockdown with the arrival of son Hamish on 28 April, joining Fagerson, his wife Yasmine, 14-month-old Iona and not forgetting French bulldogs Bruno and Brutus.
“He’s brilliant – and at 9lbs 3oz at birth definitely my son,” laughs Dad. “We were a bit nervous about having a baby during a global pandemic, obviously, but hats off to the NHS and the midwives and nurses – they were unbelievable.
“The day he arrived we didn’t reckon anything was happening. Yaz had tasked me with scrubbing the house from top to bottom. I thought I could fit in a workout and a good night’s sleep, then he’d be born in the morning. But I got a call from Yaz: ‘I’m being induced. Get over here now’. I smashed down some food and turned up at the hospital absolutely dripping with sweat.
“It was early in lockdown and I didn’t have to wear a mask or gloves though the staff all did. I remember thinking: would babies eventually have to be born with no dads present? That would be brutal for the mums. But I was able to be the supportteam for my wife who was a trouper, amazing the whole way through, and now we have Hamish who’s a massive blessing.
“He’s doing well, a good wee sleeper and very smiley. I missed this stage with my daughter when Scotland went into camp before the World Cup in Japan so it’s been great to see, and to watch him interact with Iona who’s just started running around. Yes, lockdown’s been tough but I’ve been more fortunate than many. Yaz has been really supportive and the kids have helped me too. You can’t sit around feeling sorry for yourself not being able to play rugby when one of them starts crying and you have to revert straight into Dad mode.”
It probably seems that Fagerson – first international appearance a few days after the 20th birthday, youngest Scotland prop for 68 years, immediate comparisons with a young version of Iain “The Bear” Milne – has packed a lot into his rugby career already but, really, the same was true of his young life before it.
A son of Kirriemuir, Angus, the eldest of five children born to Jonathan and Gwendolyn including six-times-capped brother Matt and educated at Dundee High and Strathallan, he came to the oval ball as a well-rounded teen having played almost as many musical instruments as he did sports. Indeed there cannot be many prop forwards anywhere who used to be mountain-biking choirboys.
“Hats off to Mum and Dad who encouraged us in everything and drove us everywhere,” he says. “Believe it or not I used to be a pretty good high jumper until I got too heavy.” Didn’t h slow him down on t youiusedtobeslim High mates – these b on Zoom during loc would just laugh. Th when I carried a rug competition, such as arated my ac [acromi tournament and a w down a hill near Dum the bike points only f my helmet off and rip (Ouch).
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“I’ll be brutally honest: there were times during lockdown when I really didn’t know where my next game was going to be coming from and I got pretty down. I thought: ‘That’s it, I’m not going to play again’… I’ve got a family, a garden, a couple of dogs. If you’re a single guy in a flat you don’t have such distractions and comforts. I’ve spoken to a few of these boys and they were in some pretty dark places. They’re very, very relieved to have rugby back”