REID REVELLING IN DUTIES WITH CLUB AND COUNTRY
In-form Warrior aims to make most of second chance and boost his international career
HE used to make his living French polishing pianos. His job nowadays is more akin to shifting them. And Gordon Reid wouldn’t have it any other way. The 27-year-old took the decision to swap the genteel world of antique restoration to become a full-time shunter of scrums in the Glasgow Warriors front-row three years ago.
After serving his apprenticeship in the shadow of Scotland and Lions prop Ryan Grant, he has really come into his own these last three months, with his fine form for Glasgow Warriors during their charge at the RaboDirect Pro12 Final (he scored the crucial try in the tight semi-final with Munster for one thing) being rewarded on Tuesday when he was named in the Scotland squad for their globetrotting summer tour of the USA, Canada, Argentina and South Africa.
It won’t be Reid’s first exposure to the Scotland set-up. He was an unused substitute on that ill-fated afternoon in November 2012 when Scotland capitulated to Tonga in Aberdeen and head coach Andy Robinson paid the price with his job. He also flew out to South Africa last summer as injury cover, but again didn’t make it onto the pitch.
This summer should be different, however. Grant is being left at home to rest and repair his battered and bruised body, while his long-standing understudy at loose-head prop Alasdair Dickinson is only joining the squad after the North American leg of the trip.
That means Reid is almost certain to top off a tremendous season by becoming a fully-fledged international during the next month.
‘As soon as you get the taste of something you want it more,’ he admitted. ‘You think: “I want to be there, I want to better myself”.
‘That’s what it’s all about, but the only way to get there is by doing well for your club — by improving yourself as a player, on and off the field.
‘It goes back to the days when I used to go to athletics down in Ayr. I used to work on my speed.
‘I played rugby on Wednesday and went to athletics Tuesday and Thursday. I was going up against boys who were running for Scotland.
‘People would ask me why I was doing it and I’d say that I didn’t want to run against boys I was faster than because then I wouldn’t improve. I had to run with the boys who were doing 100metres in about 11 seconds to push myself harder.
‘That’s why I want Ryan Grant to be here so that I can push to be just as good, or even better, than him and Jerry (Yanuyanutawa), who has played for Fiji.’
Reid expertly ducks a question about his own personal best for the 100m, but there is no doubting that those long hours of trailing in behind whippets half his weight but twice his speed has paid off. He’s pretty nifty for a big man — as anyone who saw his rampaging run-in from 30 yards against Treviso three weeks ago will testify.
Having come into professional rugby the hard way, Reid is the sort of character you can’t help but be drawn to. He knows from experience how lucky he is to be doing what he is doing — and his natural enthusiasm for life is infectious.
‘I was involved in the Scotland Under-18, Under-19 and Under-20 squads, but I didn’t get an academy contract or anything like that,’ he continued. ‘I was one of the hardcore boys. I got a job when I was 16 and I played for Ayr.
‘It’s all about game time and I just kept going. I did the club international for a couple of years and got picked up by Glasgow after that.
‘I did a lot of odd jobs. I’ve worked in bars, been a bouncer, worked in B&Q, done labouring, done roofing — although I broke just about every slate I stood on. You name it, I’ve done it.
‘You’d work from eight in the morning to five or six in the evening, maybe do overtime, sometimes go home at nine o’clock at night and then have to go to training after that. You’re absolutely knackered but you still do it because you love the game.
‘As soon as you step on the park you forget about everything else — how hard your job might be, falling out with your missus the night
before, everything just goes out the window. It’s like being a different person. It is a dream to get paid to do something you love.’
While head coach Gregor Townsend deserves all of the credit he gets for transforming the Warriors from hardy competitors on the undercard to glamorous contenders, his predecessor should not be robbed of recognition for putting in place the building blocks to this success.
The backbone of the current Warriors squad was brought to Glasgow by Sean Lineen — with Reid a classic case in point.
‘Because rugby wasn’t really coming, I thought I would just start up myself, doing French polishing,’ he added. ‘It’s not an obvious job for a guy like me because it’s all about fine detail, but it was going really well until Sean asked me if I wanted to come to Glasgow.
‘Obviously I had to weigh things up, but it wasn’t really a hard decision in the end. I knew I had to give it a shot. You only get one life and you have to do things you love doing. You might not be here tomorrow. So I picked the rugby.
‘But you never forget where you come from. I’ll never forget all the people who have helped me in all the places where I’ve worked.
‘When I’m wondering why I’m out there training in the rain, it’s good to think: “Well, it could be worse, I could be getting minimum wage to work behind a bar”.’
Perhaps the most vivid on-field expression of Reid’s happy state of mind is with his celebration after that Treviso score, which involved some comical shoulder dancing and has been christened ‘The Gordie Shuffle’ by Warriors fans.
‘Everyone has asked me about it. It’s going mental on Twitter and Facebook. But I don’t care what anyone else thinks. I was excited. Props don’t score many tries, so when they do you see it,’ he said.
‘When I’m happy I do stupid things, crazy things. I don’t regret it. I was happy and I got excited.’
There is every chance that Reid will have case to feel excited again very soon.