CAN A FIRST CAP MARK THE END OF AN AMAZING JOURNEY?
WITH a back story that takes in the Outer Hebrides and Monte Carlo, it’s been some journey to the brink of a first Wales cap for Josh Macleod.
We’ve had Welsh internationals born in some pretty far-flung, exotic locations over the years.
There has been Moascar, Egypt (Graham Price), Mufulira, Zambia (Dafydd James), Johannesburg, South Africa (Ian Evans), Tofoa, Tonga (Taulupe Faletau), Nairobi, Kenya (Stuart Russell) and Rheindahlen, West Germany (Paul Thorburn).
But we’ve never had one born in Monaco before.
That could be about to change, however, with Scarlets flanker Macleod the one uncapped player in Wayne Pivac’s Six Nations squad.
While the 24-year-old openside was raised in Pembrokeshire, his story began elsewhere.
As his surname suggests, there are Scottish roots to the family tree.
“My dad used to be a fisherman on the Outer Hebrides,” he reveals in his WRU column.
“But he moved to Monaco to skipper yachts and my mum went with him to work too.
“All of a sudden I came along. So I was born in Monte Carlo.
“I don’t remember much of my time there, because we moved to West Wales when I was around five years old.
“Our great-grandparents were there and it seemed the best place for my sister and I to be raised.
“We’ve been back to Monaco a couple of times, but it’s a different world to the place my parents knew back in the day.”
With the move to Wales, so rugby entered the life of the Fishguard-schooled youngster.
“We lived in a place called Dinas, just outside Newport, Pembrokeshire,” he explains.
“Fishguard didn’t have any agegroup rugby at the time.
“When I was eight, I played a game for Cardigan and a couple of guys from Crymych rang up my old man and asked us to go along to the club.
“I stayed there until I was 16 and had a brilliant time.
“I was a fluent Welsh-speaker, so it was easy for me to fit in with this team in the middle of a farming community.
“I’ve promised Crymych I’ll visit them and help out however I can once things return to normal.
“So that’s something to look forward to.”
Macleod represented Wales at under-16 and under-20 level and has gone on to become a hugely valuable member of the Scarlets squad with his versatility and breakdown expertise.
He won the award as the Turnover King in the PRO14 last season, with his tally of 23 turnovers putting him seven clear of his nearest challenger.
That ability over the ball has played a big part in him forcing his way into the international reckoning.
On the subject of which, his inclusion in Wales’s Six Nations squad is very much a case of ‘Take Two’.
He was named in Pivac’s party for the autumn campaign, only to damage his hamstring against Glasgow the day before he was due to link up with the group.
Consigned to close on two months out of action, he had to watch on as another uncapped flanker – James Botham – grabbed his chance, playing in three of the Tests.
“That just wasn’t my time, quite clearly,” he says.
“Obviously I was gutted it wasn’t me, but these things are going to happen.
“I suffered quite a few injury blows when I was younger, so I think I’ve built a certain level of resilience to them.
“Not to say that I wasn’t disappointed to miss out on the Wales shot. It did hit me for six.
“I was lying in the Vale that night after travelling back from Scotland, thinking things could have been slightly different for the upcoming weeks.
“But if you take too much time to reflect on things like that, you are never going to move forward.”
Now Macleod is moving in the right direction again and has enjoyed his first week with the Wales squad.
“It’s a week longer than I managed in the autumn, so I’m delighted to get another shot this time around,” he says.
“I’m loving every minute of being here with a great bunch of boys.
“All the older guys in camp are helping me adapt and settle in, so I’m just trying to learn off them as best I can.
“Being the only uncapped player in the squad isn’t something I’ve really thought about – although some of the players have reminded me that I haven’t done my 30-second intro yet.
“New players have to get up and talk about themselves for half a minute in front of everyone.
“So that’s going through my head more than the fact that I’m the least experienced player here.
“If I’d been asked to do it on the first day of camp I may have suffered from stage fright, but I feel a bit more relaxed now.”
Reflecting on his hopes for the coming weeks, he concluded: “All I can do is give a good first impression of myself, work as hard as I can and try to fit in as best as possible.
“If a chance arises, then I’ll get stuck in and push on.”