MY LIFE IN RUGBY

Winning the Celtic League in my first season at Ospreys with a victory at the Border Reivers was a bitter-sweet experience for me. It was the last time my former club took to the field due to financial reasons and my joy was tempered by sympathy for mates worried about where their next pay cheques was coming from.

Leaving the Borders in 2006 wasn’t an easy decision. It was where I grew up and where I got my first professional contract having enjoyed two successful years at Hawick, where I’m now head coach. But the Borders had an uncertain future virtually from the get-go so when the opportunity to join Ospreys arose, I had to take it.

As well as winning the league in that first season, we made it to Twickenham in the EDF Cup final, losing to Leicester but gaining revenge at the same stage of the competition a year on. You play the game to be a part of occasions like that and, having been part of a Borders team struggling near the foot of the league, I thought the move might enhance my Test prospects after five years in the wilderness.

I’d gone from amateur rugby to Test matches for Scotland in the space of a year, making my debut against Romania in 2002 and scoring my first try in my next game – a historic win against South Africa.

Luckily for me there was a trend for big back three players, one reporter even referred to me as the Scottish Jonah Lomu! It was all a bit of a whirlwind but it didn’t last. As a winger in a struggling team, opportunities to catch the eye were few and far between and I went to the 2003 World Cup to hold tackle bags.

But sure enough, my move to Ospreys coincided with me being back in favour with Scotland and I went on to win 24 caps and appear in the 2007 World Cup. I was due to play in the 2011 tournament in New Zealand but I did my ACL five minutes before the end of the last warm-up game and was out for the season.

I got to play and socialise with some great guys at Ospreys. Shane Williams was named World Player of the Year while I was there and, on the other flank, Tommy Bowe was unstoppable at times. I was just happy to do the hard yards whenever required. While I was struck by how professional everything was at the club when I arrived, we enjoyed the side of things more associated with the amateur era too, like mixing with the fans and having a beer together.

My second League winner’s medal came after we beat Leinster in Dublin. Being on home turf, they were favourites going into the final but our wonderful coaching team of Scott Johnson, Sean Holley and Jon Humphreys got our tactics spot on that day. What I learnt from those three has served me in good stead in my current role, that’s for sure.

That same season in 2009-10, we came within inches of securing the club’s first-ever place in the Heineken Cup semis only to lose by a point to Biarritz on a hot day in San Sebastian. I came off the bench and scored a try and we almost completed the comeback but a last-ditch drop-goal attempt went wide. I suppose that’s the only disappointment I have from my time in Wales: that we didn’t make more of an impression in Europe.

When the Ospreys went down a different route and reduced their budget it was time for me to move on and experience the Premiership. Worcester is a great club but it’s hard to look back fondly on my time there because, by then, I was also having problems with my AC joint.

With two young kids now, I decided to move back to Scotland to join Edinburgh but with my best days behind me, I made only a handful of appearances and slowly but surely coaching started to take precedence. -as told to Jon Newcombe