Gilchrist tunes up for the Ireland challenge

Gilchrist on song for Scotland once more, commanding stage in return to big time

ELITE sport has the innate ability to seriously mess with your head. Just ask Elise Christie after her Olympic crashes to earth. In rugby, a player who enjoys a career without suffering serious injury, and the mental torture that comes with it, is sadly rare. But there is torture and there is the devil’s work.

Consider a path to pro debut followed swiftly by international inception, the excitement of being mentored by an All Black and then handed the promise of glory — the chance not only to represent your country but to captain it in autumn Tests. And have it cruelly snatched away. Twice.

Follow that with the loss of a million-pound contract with the world’s leading team, Toulon, and a struggle to regain the form that had everyone believing you were the new wunderkind, driving a lengthy slide into the shadows, and we are getting somewhere to understanding where Grant Gilchrist has been for the past few seasons.

It comes as a major surprise, really, when the 6ft 7in man from Alloa still greets you with a warm handshake and wide smile, and jokes around, when asked about his career.

That masks periods of doubts and depression, revealing incredible mental strength, so if there is anyone qualified to discuss Scotland’s battle to be taken seriously as a rugby nation once again, by emulating their Murrayfield form in more hostile away grounds, the 27year-old lock fits the bill.

Finn Russell, Huw Jones and Stuart Hogg are rightly the focus of many plaudits, but as they have been getting their heads around dips on an exciting rollercoaster ride, Gilchrist, one of the men giving them the ball to play, is prizing his role back in the team because he knows how much work went into getting to this height, personally and collectively.

He earned his 21st cap against England — some time later than he might have expected on his Scotland debut in 2013 — but there is a reassuring ‘coming of age’ air to the lock now, not least in his insightful reflections on the Six Nations’ tumult so far and how the team will respond after the Calcutta Cup delirium.

‘Obviously, after the game you celebrate your win,’ Gilchrist said ahead of Saturday’s visit to face Ireland in Dublin.

‘You take the enjoyment from that great feeling and unbelievable atmosphere. But, as soon as you get back into training, there’s another massive opportunity there for us and we don’t want it to slip by us because we’re thinking about something that’s in the past.

‘The biggest positive of the last few games for me is that the game-plan hasn’t really changed. We just didn’t execute it anywhere near the level that’s required in Cardiff and that makes you look like you don’t know what you’re doing. We did know what we were doing, but didn’t execute any of it.

‘I can only speak for myself and I didn’t feel over-confident going there. I knew we hadn’t won there in so many years and knew it was going to be a big challenge. We lost two tries in quick succession and started forcing the game.

‘In most of the games where we’ve done well, we’ve done well from the start, perhaps minus the France game where we showed some good bottle to come back.

‘But that’s where you look very average: when you find yourself behind and chasing a game, and you start going off-script to try and make something happen. We didn’t have that composure.

‘But I don’t believe any of the boys thought we would just turn up and win. The last two weeks have given us the belief in what we’re trying to do, so it’s been good to be back at home, but we also understand that playing at home is a different beast.

‘Playing that style of rugby, we do it well at Murrayfield, and we know that the biggest challenge is this next one in the Six Nations, against the team top of the table, where we need to go and replicate the same game and make sure we play in the same way. There’s no reason why we can’t.

‘History tells us that the home games are where we’ve played to our best but this squad know that now we need to do it in Dublin and, as good as we were against England, we’re going to have to be even better in all areas over there ... which is an exciting challenge.’

There is a genuine excitement in Gilchrist’s demeanour, but his easy-going nature off the field is in contrast to the hard edge he displays on it. He is a New Zealand type of forward, not flash or quick, but hard-working, steely, skilful and an intelligent decision-maker — as befits someone who spent time working with All Black mentor Sam Whitelock.

The Jonny-Richie Gray axis seemed a perfect blend when ‘Gilco’ was on the sidelines, but Richie has also been plagued by injury, while Tim Swinson and Ben Toolis have come in to offer differing qualities.

Toolis was dropped after the Welsh game, when most of the pack could have been left out for a poor display — and that opened the door to Gilchrist.

His set-piece work with Jonny Gray against France and England was a crucial factor in providing ball for Scotland’s attack to flourish and that, allied to ferocious breakdown and ball-carrying duties, will be key on Saturday.

And we have a former English hooker to thank as, according to Gilchrist, Richard Cockerill has been a key figure in his return to the top, since Gregor Townsend left him out of last summer’s tour.

‘That was a real blessing in disguise,’ Gilchrist revealed. ‘I’d just got back with Edinburgh, played a couple of games but was struggling for form, as were the team. Gregor said I’d not been consistent enough to get picked for Scotland, which I completely agreed with.

‘Not being picked gave me an opportunity to start pre-season with a new head coach and reset my whole mindset. I wanted to prove to

I’ve found it so refreshing to start at ground zero. This is me at my best now

Cockers I was good enough to play for Edinburgh, and when I got playing for Edinburgh, I wanted to prove to Gregor that I was good enough to play for Scotland.

‘It was refreshing to start at ground zero. Cockers was honest and said he wasn’t going to give me any credit for what I’d done in the past. He wanted to see what I was all about now. That’s what I needed.

‘Things were getting clouded in my head. When he came in, he threw down the gauntlet and I respond well to that. I’m not a guy that needs an arm round me.

‘It made me focus in; I went to work and worked hard. The way he’s managed me has got me back onto good form.’

He spoke at length about the input to his game from Scotland forwards coach Dan McFarland, a different character but with similar desire and attention to detail.

‘It can be hard when you’ve been out injured as people maybe think you were better than you were, but hopefully now I’ve got beyond that comparison with what I used to be.

‘So people are hopefully seeing that this is me — and this is me playing at my best.

‘There’s a lot of things I can still do better, but on the whole, in terms of consistency, this is the best season I’ve ever had.’

The confidence and hunger is restored in what is an inspirational story of beating the demons of injury and mental setbacks — and nowhere will Scotland require that more in Dublin this weekend than in the boiler room of the team.