It took me a year to recover from being Lions scapegoat
‘It was great to go to New Zealand. But there were lows. The criticism... the Teapot.’
IT started with a hangover. It ended abruptly with a debilitating after-effect that took more than a year to shake off. Peter Wright accepts an invitation to talk about his experience with the British Lions, as they were known then, with a cautionary aside: ‘It’s maybe not as positive as you may think.’
It is, however, a riveting tale of trial and recovery, of experience and resilience and has the added bonus of the unexpected.
‘I shared a room with Will Carling,’ said the Lasswade boy of the Sandhurst-educated England captain.
‘He was a good guy, very professional, I never had any issues with him.’
But back to 1993, to the beginning and the hangover. ‘I was at work as a blacksmith on a building site in Edinburgh,’ he said.
‘I had been at a stag night in a bar just off Corstorphine Road the night before. I was hungover and not quite at my best when a site agent came and told me I had a phone call. It was my boss and he said: “Have you heard the news you have been picked for the Lions?”.’ Wright briskly replied in the expletive. ‘But that is how you heard in those days,’ he said. ‘The official letter then arrived with the congratulations and the itinerary. My wedding had to be brought forward.’
The marriage to Audrey has survived that inauspicious beginning but the romance of life with the Lions in New Zealand was shortlived. Wright, a prop with only one season of Five Nations rugby behind him and a total of six international caps, was seen by critics to have taken the place of Jeff Probyn, an English veteran who was liked and respected.
‘Was I a political choice? Possibly,’ said Wright in the sort of honest reflection that is his trademark. ‘Scotland’s whole front five went on tour. Maybe they decided to take a unit, but I was surprised. A number of people were not happy with my selection and many of them were English journalists.
‘Probyn was fine with it. He was at the leaving dinner and he told me: “I am disappointed not to be going but I have no animosity towards you. I wish you all the best”. That was fantastic.
‘The English press had a little go at the start but as the tour went on I became a bit of a scapegoat.’
His road to the Lions had been unusual. He was a rugby-playing Scot who was not a Borderer and who did not go to a private school.
Wright was a product of Lasswade Academy and Lasswade Rugby Club.
‘My mum and dad were oldfashioned, working class people, liked a wee drink on a Saturday night. Sunday morning was the mini-rugby and it was a babysitting service. We got shuffled out to the rugby and it just built from there,’ said Wright, who now coaches at Boroughmuir.
‘I was a big kid. I loved the contact, getting the aggression out legally. I loved diving about the mud too.’
He progressed quickly, playing for Edinburgh Schools in an era dominated by private schoolboys. ‘That was really intimidating, going into that set-up,’ he said.
A decade later he had to make an entrance into a more elite group. ‘Reality kicked in quickly,’ he said of joining the Lions in pre-tour training.
‘I knew the Scottish players but then you meet up with Carling, (Peter) Winterbottom, (Mike) Teague, (Jason) Leonard, these guys were heroes. I felt a bit of doubt and the journalists reinforced that.’ Wright played seven of the 13 tour matches but was a ‘dirttracker’, one of those who were used in the non-Test matches, a member of the week-day sides. ‘I will put my hands up and say I deserved to be a dirttracker,’ he said. But he had unexpected company with the likes of Teague and Carling finding themselves surplus to Test requirements. ‘It must have been tough for them,’ he said. ‘Teague was the player of the Five Nations that season and Carling was of course a Grand-Slam-winning captain.’ He is particularly well disposed towards Carling.
‘He was the third player I shared a room with. One went home injured, the other went home because of a family bereavement. I was looked on as a jinx,’ he said.
‘I was impressed by his attitude,’ said Wright. ‘He could have captained the tour but they went for Gavin (Hastings) because they felt he could get all the nations to come together.
‘There was a vision — and a wrong one — that under Carling it would be all about England but he was very professional, a good team player.
‘He was a Grand-Slam-winning captain, a great player, he probably thought he should have been in the Test side but he took on all the disappointments.
‘Never a complaint. I had no issues with him. Yes, he was military educated at Sandhurst,’ said the alumnus of Lasswade Academy.
‘But I found him to be just a guy, born into what he was born into.’
Wright had more problems with Carling’s countrymen, specifically those with typewriters.
He was lacerated in newspapers, cruelly nicknamed Teapot for his habit of standing with his hand on his hip in breaks of play.
‘It probably bothered me more when I came back. I had to find the courage to watch the videos of the matches. It took me a number of years,’ he said.
But he found something surprising when he finally managed to press play.
‘When I looked back I thought I played pretty well in them. I analyse them now from the perspective of a coach and overall I had done well,’ he said.
This positive conclusion, of
course, was forged by a more mature, tougher personality.
‘It made me stronger,’ he said of the Lions tour. ‘But not immediately.’
He came back with a hangover unrelated to any alcohol imbibed on tour. ‘There were huge highs. It was great to put on that red jersey,’ he said.
‘I had no ambitions to play for the Lions. I thought that was out of reach. So it was great to go to New Zealand. But there were lows. The criticism. The Teapot.
‘When I came back, I was down for a season. I lost my place with Scotland. I had a chat with Bruce Hay, a big mentor for me.
‘He just said: “Find a way to enjoy your rugby. Don’t worry about playing for Scotland or going on tour. Just enjoy it”. I did and changed my style a wee bit.’
Wright also returned to the top level. ‘In 1995, I came back to a World Cup, went for a grand slam against England,’ he said. ‘I was back. I would have been a much better Lion that year.
‘I would have been more experienced and knowledgeable about myself and not so much in awe of team-mates or opponents.
‘You have to remember that a tour of New Zealand was and is a tough environment.
‘The external environment was harsh just playing in New Zealand but the internal one was too as you were playing against great players in competition for a Test place.’
He believes it will be even tougher for the players who start the Tour this morning against the New Zealand Provincial Barbarians.
‘Every game on this tour is a Test match. The Lions will have to play a strong team in every game because not only is the opposition very strong but they want to boot the Lions a **** . It is the only chance some of them will get because of the Lions touring cycle,’ he said.
He worries that Warren Gatland may have only one coaching style, and bemoans the dearth of Scots.
‘Finn Russell would have given the Lions something different for starters,’ he said of the Scotland stand-off. ‘I have cancelled my Sky subscription because there are so few Scots.’
He admits, though, that there is a fair chance it will be renewed.
It is, after all, the Lions. ‘It was great to be recognised as one of the best players. Sure, there was a tough time during it and immediately after it. But I emerged stronger, tougher,’ Wright added.
There will be those old-timers testify with a wince that he was tough enough already.