GOING BACK TO MY ROOTS
Aussie Dempsey feels at home in Glasgow
GLASGOW Warriors’ new signing Jack Dempsey credits his Scottish relatives for making his decision to turn his back on the chance of more Australia caps a bit more easier to come to terms with.
The back-row forward won the last of his 14 caps for the Wallabies as recently as in the 2019 World Cup before deciding to leave the New South Wales Waratahs and move to Glasgow.
The general rule is that in order for a player to be eligible for Australia they must be signed by a Super Rugby team, although head coach Dave Rennie is allowed to pick overseas-based players with more than 60 caps and two wildcards with less.
Dempsey, 27, is under no illusions moving to Glasgow could have ended his international career but decided to sign anyway.
‘There were a lot of reasons for me leaving Aus
You train in the dark and you leave in the dark. That scares me a liitle bit
tralia, but the main one would be from an individual point of view as a rugby player I was feeling I had plateaued over the last couple of years back home with my club side,’ said Dempsey.
‘I didn’t think I was growing as much as I could and should as a player in Australia. Without going into the technical and tactical reasons for that, it made me want to get more experiences.
‘Definitely, in the short term at least, I know I won’t be picked for Australia because of my move but that’s the decision I made when I decided to come here.
‘It was a sacrifice I had to make in order to do this but I wanted to improve as a rugby player, and the stuff that I wanted to improve I didn’t know if I was going to get that staying in Australia.
‘I’m only 27 and I feel like I’ve got heaps of footie in front of me, so you never know what is going to come round the corner next, but it wasn’t an overnight decision to sign for Glasgow.
‘I weighed everything up, including the national programme back home, so it is not something I took lightly. I know what I am walking into here, but I have no regrets with that. Once I made that decision, I looked at clubs and, when the chance to come to Glasgow arose, it ticked the boxes. It felt like the right fit.’
Helping Dempsey adjust to life in Scotland has been his Glaswegian relatives. Arriving for a new life in the city was an emotional moment for the forward as he was very close to his Scottish grandfather.
‘My grandad Andrew Prentice was born and raised in Glasgow and passed on when I was 12, so I have a lot of memories of him,’ he said. ‘I was taken out by my cousins to where he grew up and everything like that on my first weekend here.
‘I was close to my grandad, who met my grandmother who was Australian and they moved to western Sydney out in the sticks. They bought this little shed in the country and my grandad built the house my mum was brought up in.
‘It was our childhood home where we went for Christmas and Easter. My memories of him are being out the back, digging holes and building stuff and he had this very think Glaswegian accent. I was lucky to have him in my life and now I am meeting his whole family here. I am slowly meeting them all here and obviously they are quite old now, I think the oldest is 91.
‘I have not met her yet but apparently she is a bit of a rugby nut, so hopefully we can get the whole clan together and watch a bit of rugby.
‘And since I got here my Scottish cousins have taken me under their wing. They are a little bit older and have their own young families but are giving me a helping hand and letting me know I have some blood here and they will help me out.
‘That is better than going to say France where I know nobody and I don’t speak the language and that was another reason for wanting to come here.
‘I have that Scottish heritage and ties to the country and to the city and that means a lot to me.’
Dempsey’s ability to play anywhere in the back-row will be a major advantage to Glasgow going into next season as they will be without their regular No 8 Matt Fagerson (right), who will be on Scotland duty during the Autumn
Tests and the Six Nations.
‘Danny (Wilson) is a pretty black-andwhite operator from what I’ve seen so far and he told me over the phone when I was back in Sydney that he likes my explosive ball-carries and my ability to turnover ball at the breakdowns as well, and he’s looking for me to add depth in the back-row by doing that,’ said Dempsey.
‘The history that Glasgow has with fast-paced footie — with quick ruck speed — is something which very much suits my game.
‘So, it is kind of a combination of wanting a character like me to add depth, and being that tool in the tool chest within the back-row, but also I do suit the identity and style that Glasgow want to play as well.’
The one thing that the man who is well used to the sun-kissed beaches of Australia has yet to experience and isn’t looking forward to is the Scottish winter, which is one thing his Glaswegian relatives can’t help him deal with.
‘A few of the lads have been giving me some horror stories and I think they are trying to scare me before the winter comes,’ said Dempsey.
‘Whenever I have been in the UK before, it has always been October or early November and I have been absolutely freezing and that was me dealing with it for one or two weeks compared to two years.
‘Lewis Bean (Glasgow Warriors player) told me that you come in to work and it’s dark, you train in the dark and then you leave in the dark.
‘That scares me a little bit, if I’m honest, but it’s about throwing myself in at the deep end and growing as a person and a rugby player — and that is what I am looking forward to.’