RIO-BOUND ROBERTSON IN SEVENS HEAVEN
Melrose man aims to do the Borders town and his family proud by starring for Great Britain at the Olympics after beating the odds
ONE HUNDRED and thirtythree years after rugby sevens was founded in Melrose, a proud son of the Borders town will take centre stage for Great Britain at the Olympics, keeping the historical link alive on the biggest sporting stage in the world.
For Mark Robertson — whose dad Keith was part of Scotland’s 1984 Grand Slam winning team — there is immense pride in representing first and foremost Melrose, where butcher Ned Haig invented sevens rugby in 1883, at the Games in Rio.
So much so that when he was mistakenly revealed as coming from Galashiels at the team announcement in the Brazilian Embassy in London, he was quick to correct that misapprehension.
‘I was a bit gutted when they announced the team and put “Mark Robertson, Galashiels” on the sheet,’ said Robertson. ‘I’m not happy about that. I am a Melrose boy.
‘Growing up, all I ever wanted to do was play at Melrose Sevens, never mind play at the Hong Kong Sevens, or anywhere else.
‘Playing at the Melrose Sevens has been the biggest thing in my life so far as it was always a day I looked forward to, that second Saturday in April. Now to be able to represent Melrose, where sevens started, at the Olympics is a huge thing for me.
‘I’ve got a Melrose Sevens runnersup medal as we got to the Final when I was 19 — and it was 30 years to the day since my old man won Melrose Sevens when he was 19, so my link with sevens rugby all the way through to the Olympics is very strong.
‘I want to mark Melrose’s links with sevens rugby in Brazil and before I fly out I will be nipping down to the Melrose club shop to get things like Melrose Rugby Club scarves to take with me to Rio.
‘When I get there, I will be trying to get a few in photos in Brazil to mark the historical link between my hometown and rugby sevens.’
Watching him from the stands in Rio will be his dad Keith, who endured some nervous moments inside Twickenham back in May when he watched his son help Scotland win their first-ever leg of the HSBC World Sevens Series.
Robertson was the stand-out Scotland player of the tournament, scoring a try in the 17-0 quarter-final drubbing of England and playing superbly in the Final win over South Africa, which helped clinch his place in the GB team for Rio.
‘When we won that Final, my dad said it was the most excited he had been in his life — and remember he won the 1984 Grand Slam,’ said the 31-year-old. ‘My mum was seriously worried about him when we won as he went white and then had to have a lie down as he was so excited.
‘My dad has been a massive supporter all through my career and I have a lot to thank him for. He thinks I had the potential to play 15s for Scotland and that injuries limited me.
‘He’s seen how grumpy I’ve been over the years and how much rugby has taken out of me, but also how much I’ve got from it. I think he’s just massively proud that I’ve managed to do something for the family by being picked for the Olympics, which is a dream come true.
‘When I said to my old man, my mum and my wife that I had been picked, there were quite a few tears. We were just so proud. I’m very fortunate at the same time. It has taken a lot of hard work and I have had to come through a lot of pretty crap times because of injury in the past.’
Robertson knows this is his first and only chance at Olympic glory and admits that both he and England’s James Rodwell, who is the same age, are looked on as the elder statesmen of the squad.
‘We’re the grandads,’ laughed the GB Sevens star. ‘It is quite a mature squad though and even the likes of Mark Bennett, who is only 23, has been to a World Cup with Scotland.
‘That maturity helps because it means the older guys like me aren’t having to look after the younger guys because everyone is significantly experienced, regardless of age.’
Out of all the 12 players in the GB Sevens team, it is Robertson’s story that embraces the Olympic ethic of overcoming adversity and never giving up on his dream.
He freely admits that being picked for Rio has been made all the sweeter for two reasons. One was the fact that he missed out on selection for the Scotland Sevens squad at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
The other was that three years before when he was with Edinburgh Rugby, only a problem with his insurance policy stopped him retiring from the game through persistent groin and abdomen injuries.
‘I was pretty unfortunate with injuries at Edinburgh and effectively retired for two-and-a-half years because of my groin problems,’ said the man who has scored 84 tries in 47 appearances for the Scotland Sevens team. ‘I had four years at Edinburgh and I’d had the injury for pretty much the whole season of my last year playing for them. I definitely thought: “This isn’t getting better”.
‘It was so bad that I would have finished in 2011 and made steps to do that. I even went for my careerending insurance because the surgeons that I’d seen all over the country weren’t able to tell me what was wrong, or how long it would take to get back. They just said there were a lot of injuries there.
‘But as it turned out, my careerending insurance was null and void because I hadn’t played enough games at the time to trigger a payout. In hindsight, that was lucky because I was forced to keep going.
‘As a last resort, I paid to go to America and saw some specialists for my groin and abdomen problem who said: “Listen, it can get better, it’s just going to take time”.
‘Once you hear that, once you have someone being positive about it, that definitely made me believe I could get back and play.
‘It was still a long way back for me. When I came back from America, I went to Edinburgh University to do my Masters in Physiology and wasn’t playing at all for a couple of years.
‘But at the end of my Masters, I went to London Scottish where I got a few games before getting back onto the Sevens World Series with Scotland — and then things started to get a lot better.
‘In saying that, I was then gutted not to be picked for the Scotland team for the Commonwealth Games in 2014. I never wanted to have that feeling again. That was also a huge motivation to do everything possible to get into this Olympic squad.
‘To come through such adversity makes being picked all the sweeter.’
Great Britain will take on Kenya, New Zealand and Japan in the group stage, which take place over August 9 and 10 at the Deodoro Stadium.
‘Going in and not knowing what the Olympics are going to be like, that anticipation is the most exciting thing for me,’ said the father of one, who has no concerns over the Zika virus.
‘First and foremost, in the initial week or so, the thing I’ve got to do is perform. I don’t want to just get in the squad, go there and be just another number.
‘I’ve got this far and I now want to go out there and actually achieve something by helping us to a medal — as this is really the pinnacle of my career and I want to make the team, Melrose, my family, everybody proud.’