Only thing Hawkins is drunk on is success

THREE Scotland players are sent home from the Rugby League World Cup for ‘misconduct’. Which at least explains the team’s abysmal performances in the tournament to date. As the rugby union lads kick off their Autumn International series this weekend, meanwhile, they do so against their own colourful backdrop of suspensions and scandals. Add these examples to the morass of misbehaving Scottish footballers to have leapt into a booze-filled abyss over the years and, to be honest, any fair-minded observer might begin to see a trend. One that inexorably links a Caledonian bloodline, a Y chromosome and sporting ability with a tendency towards self-destructive excess. How refreshing it was, then, to hear FPSG Scottish Athlete of the Year Callum Hawkins accept his award with a smile and a declaration that: ‘I just go out and run.’ A first among equals in a year when Scottish athletes have competed at the very highest level, marathon man Hawkins could have stepped straight out of an Alf Tupper feature. And the 25-year-old — whose fourth-placed finish at the World Championships equalled the best-ever result by a British man — believes that returning from university in the States to base himself in Scotland has been key to his success. So he’s a world-class athlete from the west of Scotland who dedicates himself to his sport, shrugs off praise as easily as he leaves rivals trailing — and doesn’t feel the need to ‘let off steam’ in the middle of a major championships. Are we sure he’s one of our lot?