TOWNSEND THANKFUL FOR ROCKY START IN OZ
SCOTLAND head coach Gregor Townsend has taken a trip down memory lane this week with visits to his old haunts in Sydney.
He played here for the Warringah Rats at a time when the game was amateur and he had to undertake back-breaking labouring work to earn his keep.
Little did it matter that, at 20, he had only recently won his first Scotland cap off the bench against England at Twickenham. This was 1993 and there was no signing-on fee or appearance money on offer.
The club did help him find a place to stay and a part-time job, but that was it.
‘That experience influenced my career and improved my rugby,’ recalled Townsend.
‘It is a cliche, but I wanted to get out of my comfort zone and going to play in Australia did that. Also life in the northern beaches of Sydney was easy to adapt to, it was laid back and the language was the same.’
It was no holiday however. The rugby was deadly serious and cash was so tight to begin with he had to share a room with Stewart Bennet, a fellow Scot who had played for Kelso.
‘Stewart came out the first year and we shared a room for three months,’ said the Scotland head coach. ‘Let’s just say sharing with a Kelso farmer was not the best thing.
‘When we first got to Sydney, Stewart and I worked as groundsmen at the club to get some extra money for the weekend. There were a few pitches at the back of the club with rocks on them. There was also a driving range they wanted us to tidy and also take some trees down.
‘Stewart, being a hard-working Borders farmer, really went at it and we did the best job ever on the pitches first. In fact, we nearly cleared half the rocks off the pitch on the first day.
‘The Warringah committee were impressed but told us they had given us two months to do that work alone. So after that it was one rock a day.
‘When we had finished that, we got jobs as builders and demolition men to keep us busy and earn some cash.’
Townsend made an instant impact at the club, helping them to the ‘Grand Final’ for Australian clubs, but had to miss the showpiece they lost to Gordon as he had to return to Scotland to sit politics exams at Edinburgh University.
‘I kept in contact, though, and two years later when I finished my politics degree, I came back to play for them again in 1995 and, this time, shared a place with the French international Abdelatif Benazzi,’ continued Townsend.
‘Because I had graduated in politics, I got a job in the city working for a political research team for the NSW parliament opposition leader Peter Collins. After that I worked with an MP, the Commonwealth Secretary Bronwyn Bishop. It was great that they had the contacts for me to do that. It’s still on my CV if I need it.’
His success as a rugby player and coach has meant he never will have to worry about going back to ‘a normal job’ and as he looks back on those two seasons with ‘The Rats’ in Australia, he ranks them among the most enjoyable of his life.
‘It is important that whatever environment you are in, you get those experiences to grow up and do things on your own and learn things in other countries,’ said Townsend.
‘Finn Russell and Jonny Gray had those experiences when they went to New Zealand for three or four months on rugby scholarships.
‘It definitely made them better people, having to go out there and live a different life and experience something different.
‘Rugby-wise, the style of rugby I learned back then stayed with me. The Australian clubs wanted to move the ball, play a really high-tempo game and it was great to play in games like that.
‘I came back to Scotland raving about the pace and the style of Australian rugby.’