Gray delighted by his Scotland return

Richie Gray wasted no t ime in confirming that he was back in the Scotland international fold when he got Gregor Townsend’s text on Sunday.

The experienced lock has had an elongated estrangement of sorts from the Scotland camp – mostly due to injuries, but also his decision not to commit to Scotland’s Rugby World Cup campaign last year.

There were very good reasons for that, but there were also no bridges to rebuild for the 31-year-old, who returned to Scotland from a long spell in France to rejoin his home town club Glasgow Warriors this summer.

“There wasn’ t even a question,” he said from Scotland’s camp.

“Gregor sent me a text on the Sunday night to say I was involved and I texted back straight away to say that I can’t wait to be a part of it. It is just great because I’m in a far better place than I was at World Cup time.

“It was pretty simple really – my son was born in May and the camp was two weeks after that, and I wanted to be around for my wife and my son.

“To go away for the World Cup would have been a few months and I just didn’t feel I was in the best place to offer that. And, also, I had just come back from injury, so probably also wasn’t in the best place physically.

“Those two reasons were the deciding factors.”

There was a lways the chance that Scotland and Townsend would move on, and Gray accepted that possibility.

“I wasn’t sure how things would be after the World Cup, and you never know what is going to happen, so there was a period after the World Cup when I thought that it might have been it all over,” he said.

“Fortunately, I was able to get back to Glasgow Warriors – which I am very thankful for – and now I have been invited into this environment, so it is just about taking the opportunity.”

He and Townsend kept up the dialogue – he wasn’t available for the Six Nations just past because of another injury – and passing chats when Townsend came to Warriors’ training sessions confirmed that Gray was still part the coach’ s plans.

Two years away has made Gray conscious of how much he missed the squad environment.

“I’ve really enjoyed being back,” he said.

“I wasn’ t sure how I would feel coming into things but you definitely miss it. Who knows what will happen next week but you miss the build-up to international matches.

“Every player wants to play international rugby.”

Ideally, of course, he’d like to reunite his partnership with brother Jonny in the second row – Vern Cotter ’s favourite pairing during his time as Scotland head coach – but that’ll have to wait at least a couple of weeks with the younger Gray playing two finals with Exeter Chiefs.

“It wi l l be a proud moment for the family seeing Jonny run out in the European final. I am hugely proud of him.”