SCOTS WILL CURE ROBSON’S LIONS PAIN:
HE was a veteran of six tours, his involvement stretching back nearly a quarter of a century. He had even saved a player’s life. So when Dr James Robson found out he had not been appointed head of the British and Irish Lions medical team for the tour to New Zealand, he was devastated.
‘For the first time, I felt the way players do when they are not selected for big games,’ said the Dundonian. ‘Initially, my feeling was one of devastation and despair. Then it was a case of saying to myself: “Get over it and get on with my job”.’
It was not just a shock to Robson. Indeed, the world of rugby was surprised when the 59-year-old Scotland team doctor applied for the Lions job but, after an interview, was told he wouldn’t be getting it.
Instead, head coach Warren Gatland appointed Irish doctor Eanna Falvey, who had worked under Robson on the successful 2013 Lions tour to Australia.
Why Robson, one of the most respected sports doctors in the world, missed out remains a mystery — but there are no hard feelings on his part.
‘I had great times with the Lions but Scotland is the only show in town as far as I am concerned this summer,’ he told Sportsmail over a coffee in Scotland’s hotel in downtown Singapore.
‘It is strange that this is the first time in 24 years I haven’t been on a Lions tour but for me they are a sideshow this year.
‘Of course I will keep an eye on their results and watch as many games as I can, but my only focus is Scotland.’
Not being involved with the Lions has given him time to reflect on his six tours and the special memories he will always have from them.
‘It started for me on the 1993 tour when we went to New Zealand and lost 2-1, but the team put up a great effort,’ he recalled. ‘It was the stuff of dreams for me being involved.
‘We had the Hastings brothers (Gavin and Scott), the Underwood brothers (Rory and Tony), Peter Winterbottom, the young Jeremy Guscott, Brian Moore, Wade Dooley. Pillars of the game. It was a privilege to work with these guys.’
It may have been a great experience but it took him time to return to normal when he got home.
‘I was on tour for over two months with a bunch of rugby players whose vernacular could be bawdy and crude at times, and I slipped into that way of speaking,’ he confessed. ‘In other words, swearing was second nature.
‘Head coach Ian McGeechan always said to take a few days to get used to being home because I had been institutionalised by the Lions. But in those days you weren’t paid anything when you were away with them, so I went straight back to my job as a GP.
‘On my first Monday morning back at work, there was an elderly lady who came into my surgery.
‘I asked politely: “How can I help you?” and she said: “I am actually fine. I just came to see how you got on when you were away on the Lions tour”.
‘To which I replied: “For f*** sake Mrs Smith, why the f*** did you come in to ask me that?”.
‘Luckily, I knew the patient well and she accepted my apology for swearing, but I never made the same mistake again.’
His next tour, the 1997 series in South Africa with McGeechan and Jim Telfer in charge, remains the highlight.
‘That was an eventful tour from start to finish,’ he said by way of understatement. ‘On the way out, a woman collapsed on the flight and I spent a lot of time looking after her. I have always been a
nervous flyer and once I had dealt with her I ended up spending time in the cockpit with the pilot.
‘He told me stories to get me over my fear of flying and I told him medical rugby stories.’
It was also on that tour that he saved the life of Lions and England centre Will Greenwood after he swallowed his tongue playing against the Free State Cheetahs in Bloemfontein.
In the medical room, although shaking and with Greenwood’s mum distraught in the background, he performed an emergency tracheotomy to create an opening in his throat to free up his airways.
‘Will had hit his head off the ground that was like concrete,’ said Robson. ‘He was unconscious and in a perilous position — I did my best for him, as I would any player. It is very nice of Will to say I maybe saved his life but the players’ welfare is paramount. It was all part of the job.’
That Test series was won with a superb drop goal from Guscott but Robson revealed that Gregor Townsend, who is in charge of Scotland for the first time here in Singapore, could have been the hero.
‘Because Gregor hadn’t got back from the breakdown, Jeremy took his place in the pocket and it was him who is remembered as the man who put over the winning drop goal,’ said Robson.
‘That win over the Springboks in the second Test was the highlight of my time with the Lions.
‘I remember when I entered the Lions team room, I saw Keith Wood shaving the head of Geech who said he would allow him to do it if we won the Test series. Great memories.’
The 2001 tour wasn’t so positive. Under Graham Henry, the Lions lost in Australia and, four years later under Sir Clive Woodward, the Lions were whitewashed against New Zealand.
‘The 2005 party was unwieldy as we had 44 players and quite a large backroom staff, which meant we had to be on two coaches and split on planes,’ said Robson.
‘The one thing we didn’t need was the early injury to the captain Brian O’Driscoll, who lasted less than a minute of the first Test. We never recovered from that.’
The Test series in South Africa in 2009, which the Lions lost, was a turning point for the world of rugby thanks partly to concerns raised by Robson.
He felt the game was on the point of self-destruction, such was the physical intensity and the impact of collisions.
‘After the second Lions Test against South Africa, we had five people go to hospital and they had three,’ he said. ‘That was becoming the norm in world rugby at the top level.
‘Rugby was all about bulk rather than skill. I felt we had evolved a game where people were just there for the collision and where size mattered.
‘I made my concerns public. It was a clash of the titans every week. Players were getting badly hurt and that was no good for anybody.’
Robson shared his concerns with the IRB, who took notice and started to put player welfare top of its agenda, where it remains.
In 2013, there was victory over Australia under Gatland in what could now turn out to be Robson’s last involvement with the Lions.
‘If that is my final one, it would be a great way to finish as it was a fantastic tour and incredibly professionally run,’ he said.
‘Warren had his plans for this tour to New Zealand which I wasn’t part of, but we got on well in Australia.’
Now Robson must focus on his Scotland charges ahead of their match against Italy on Saturday.
‘I would love the Lions to win in New Zealand but there is no harder task in rugby,’ he said.
‘For me, though, it’s all about Scotland.’