STRAINING AT THE LEASH
Scotland hooker McInally cannot wait for Japan after missing last World Cup
STUART McINALLY is taking nothing for granted heading into the World Cup after the heartbreak he suffered just before the last one. Picked by Vern Cotter for the 2015 tournament in England, he was training at the gym at Murrayfield when his dream of taking part ended abruptly.
‘I just felt something go,’ said the Scotland hooker. ‘My neck had been pretty stiff in the weeks leading up to that and then I did a chin-up and felt something click in my back.
‘It kept getting worse over the next couple of days, so we got it scanned and it showed there was a bulging disc.
‘I remember doing a lot of scrum training in that World Cup camp and my neck was constantly sore. Maybe it wasn’t quite conditioned enough for that level of rugby yet.
‘I remember sitting on the sofa and getting the call. Deep down, I knew something wasn’t right because my arm was twitching and I was in a lot of pain. I was kind of expecting the news, but I just didn’t want to admit it.
‘I had even done the Scotland World Cup send-off dinner, but I was in a lot of pain at it. I was just trying to ignore the fact that it was maybe worse than I was prepared to accept. ‘I remember saying to the physios: “Can you not just stick a needle in it?” It felt like I had a really tight knot. But deep down I knew I would be struggling.
‘Doctor James Robson called me and told me that was it, four months out. I didn’t need surgery or anything like that, it was just about letting it heal.’
McInally, who was replaced by Kevin Bryce in the World Cup squad, could only watch from the sidelines as Scotland were controversially beaten by a lastminute penalty by Australia in the quarter-finals at Twickenham.
‘It was tough, but looking at where I was back then and where I am now, I’m so much further on in my development,’ said the Edinburgh captain. ‘I was still a very new hooker back then and I only had two caps, whereas this time round I’m on 27 caps and feel a lot more established and confident.
‘I didn’t need an operation which was good because, although the disc was bulging, it wasn’t going towards my spine. There was no danger of it getting worse. It was just about letting it settle.
‘I took that time out and built my strength up to a place where, touch wood, it’s not given me any grief since. When I knew I was out, I just focused on coming back stronger.’
McInally did just that and never once thought his career was in jeopardy following his neck injury.
‘That didn’t really cross my mind,’ he said. ‘I was just focused on trying to come back stronger. I was still quite young and felt like I had quite a long time to go yet. It felt like my best years were still ahead of me, especially in that front row.
‘I remember trying to think: “This will be a good thing. When I come back, my neck is going to be stronger than it ever was before”.
‘I came back in the January after the 2015 World Cup, played a couple of games for Edinburgh then played that full Six Nations when Fraser Brown was injured.
‘I went from two caps to seven pretty quickly then started both those games in Japan that summer.’
McInally’s progress was swift and, heading into the World Cup in Japan, he is now first-choice hooker ahead of Brown and in a three-way battle with Greig Laidlaw and John Barclay for the World Cup captaincy.
McInally, talking at the Scotland training camp on the Algarve revealed that Townsend has given no hint so far as to who his pick will be. ‘There has been no talk of the captaincy,’ he said.
‘Our time in Portugal was always geared to be a really tough week for us. We knew it was designed to replicate as close as we possibly can the conditions we’ll find in Japan.
‘I feel I’m in a great place. I feel more established among this group now and we’ve got a good core of players come through from both Edinburgh and Glasgow, with the exiles who add to that as well.’