Watching the Calcutta Cup win was hard. It was a surprise to be dropped and I was gutted
HASTINGS REVEALS HIS HEARTACHE AT BEING SNUBBED BY TOWNSEND
THE Calcutta Cup was hoisted high into the night sky as Murrayfield echoed to a chorus of Scottish celebrations. Yet, watching on TV at home, Adam Hastings felt mixed emotions. Naturally, he was delighted with the result as Scotland’s Six Nations campaign began in the best possible fashion with a rousing victory over England on the opening day.
But it was also tinged with a definite sense of disappointment that he wasn’t part of it after being left out of the squad by head coach Gregor Townsend.
‘It was hard to watch the first game against England,’ admits Hastings. ‘We beat them and the atmosphere at Murrayfield sounded incredible.
‘I was watching on TV but it was a tough one, almost bittersweet. You’re cheering for your mates, but gutted not
I’d love to get back into the squad. I still feel that I have a lot to offer
to be involved at the same time.’
When Townsend announced Scotland’s Six Nations squad back in January, the omission of Hastings stood out like a sore thumb. It became a bizarre affair.
The player had effectively become a high-profile casualty from Townsend’s desire to use Blair Kinghorn, a natural full-back converted to fly-half, as cover for Finn Russell.
To be pushed down to third-choice was incredibly harsh on Hastings, who had stepped up and excelled in the 2020 Six Nations when Russell and Townsend had fallen out.
Hastings hadn’t really done anything to warrant being dropped. He had been in good form for club side Gloucester since making the move to the Premiership last summer.
Asked if being dropped came as a shock, he says: ‘Yeah, to be honest, I was surprised. I thought I had been playing well for Gloucester. We were in a decent spot at that point, in and around the top four.
‘When I found out I wasn’t in the squad, I was extremely disappointed, as anyone would be.
‘I have aspirations to play for my country. But, unfortunately, I’ve not had many minutes playing in that blue jersey over the past while. Almost since Covid, really.
‘It’s something I’m still working back towards. I’d love to get back into the squad and get more games under my belt. I still feel I have a lot to offer.
‘It’s given me more motivation to push on and do well at Gloucester. Everything happens for a reason. I’m a firm believer in that.’
Previously in his career, there was a time when Hastings would have been straight on to social media to search for his own name on Twitter on the back of such disappointment.
He admits he was guilty of paying too much attention to what people thought of him. But, since moving from Glasgow to Gloucester, he has matured.
‘It has flown in,’ he says. ‘From the start of the year, the games were coming thick and fast. Every game is so tough. Nothing is easy.
‘But I’ve enjoyed it in that regard. I was probably a little bit naïve in thinking that I would come down and just settle in straight away. It took a little bit of time.
‘But coming down here has been quite refreshing, to be out of the Scottish rugby bubble.
‘I don’t focus on it (social media) now. I’ve moved away from it, 100 per cent. There’s other parts of my life which are more important now.
‘Back in the day, I would finish training, go home and game for six hours. Now I have other things to focus on.’
Hastings was called up belatedly midway through the Championship, but a five-minute cameo against Italy in round four was the grand sum of his efforts.
For a player of such obvious talent, that was hard to stomach. His game time has been limited over the past 18 months or so since Russell has returned to the team.
Since the Six Nations win over France at Murrayfield in March 2020, which was his best game in a Scotland jersey, Hastings has started only one Test match.
‘That game (against France) was a hell of a long time ago. That’s sport,’ he adds philosophically.
‘You could name hundreds of players you would expect to be in squads, and then they don’t get
picked. Gregor gave me a call and we had a good chat. He said what he felt. I was obviously disappointed.
But you have to take these things on the chin and keep working hard.’
There tends to be a presumption that Hastings would only ever be an understudy to Russell, so long as the
Racing 92 star was fit and available.
But not long after
Hastings
burst on to the scene in 2018, the pair of them showed that they can co-exist in an autumn Test against Fiji.
Russell was at fly-half and Hastings came off the bench to play at insidecentre. It worked brilliantly as the pair combined with a lovely exchange of passes as Hastings scored his first try for Scotland.
He is reminded of that game and is asked if he can envisage a scenario where he and Russell could play in the same team on a more regular basis.
‘Absolutely. I don’t see any reason why Finn and I couldn’t play in the same team,’ says Hastings. ‘It’s something that could work.
‘You see other teams doing it. I don’t see why it couldn’t be an option for us. We’ve just not really had the opportunity to get both of us on the pitch at the same time.
‘There’s not really been a time when they’ve chosen to experiment with it.
There’s also a lot of really good players in the centre and a lot of good options at 12. But you never know. It’s definitely an option. Especially late in games, having us both out there could be beneficial.’
What of Kinghorn, the man who seems to have jumped ahead of him in the pecking order? The two are close friends off the pitch. They even have matching tattoos.
Hastings has no ill-feeling, saying: ‘Blair has been playing well. I speak to him a lot. He’s a brilliant rugby player. Edinburgh have backed him at 10 and they’re going well in the URC. So it’s worked out.
‘We both got our cap numbers (tattooed) after our first tour together in America. A few months later, we ended up getting these lightning bolts. I’m not even sure what the lightning bolts are all about or where it came from.
‘I think both times we’d had a few beers beforehand. Next time we have a couple of beers, we’ll be going nowhere near a tattoo studio.’
Hastings is now coming to the end of his first season with Gloucester. They still have a chance of making the Premiership play-offs and kicked 11 points as Gloucester beat Northampton 31-21 in the last 16 of the Challenge Cup last night.
Since moving south, he has been a lodger with Gloucester and Scotland team-mate Chris Harris, though that arrangement will soon come to an end. ‘I’ve been staying with Chris Harris and his fiancée,’ says Hastings, now 25. ‘Two months has now turned into the best part of eight months.
‘But I’ve finally had an offer accepted on a flat. So I’ll be out of their hair soon enough.
‘I was staying in the spare room initially. But they put me on the couch over the past month to give me a kick up the a*** to get my own place.
‘They’ve been brilliant with me and I’m thankful for everything they’ve done for me.
‘Chris is unbelievable in the kitchen. He’s a bit of a chef. I bought him a chef hat and a tea towel with my face on it for his engagement present.
‘I feel like over the past couple of years, I’ve matured a lot. My mum and dad probably won’t testify to that, but I believe I have.
‘Chris and his fiancée Ruby have been keeping them updated. But I do think my mum probably misses me, especially with my sister now working over in Spain as well.
‘My mum was a bit upset when my sister got her job in Barcelona and then I moved down here. But she’s all good now. My sister works for an American tech firm in Barcelona. She’s the brains of the family, I’ll leave it there.’