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'I remember it was stressful. I don't envy anyone in that position'

By Liam Heagney
(Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

Newly recalled Scotland midfielder Matt Scott has offered advice to players currently in the awkward situation of finding themselves without a contract for next season. It was last year when the midfielder last capped in 2017 was himself facing the rugby scrapheap.

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He had verbally been offered a fresh three-year deal at Edinburgh in November in 2019 but when it came to finalising negotiations, Scott woundingly learned that the offer no longer existed and he then spent four months fretting about a future where he had no deal and his first child was on the way. 

“My wife was really looking forward to staying (in Edinburgh) for another three years and we were looking to start a family. It was just gutting, to be honest,” said Scott at the time. His stress was eventually alleviated when Leicester offered a deal last April and his rejuvenated form in the Gallagher Premiership since then has ultimately earned him a Scotland recall for their upcoming summer series.   

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A year on from his own ordeal, the uncertainty regarding contracts in professional rugby is continuing if the remarks this past week by Newcastle boss Dean Richards are anything to go by. He said: “It is astounding how many are looking for contracts and it is worrying for the game that there is just one professional rugby league in England.

“There is a need for a second division that is professional and there are a lot of players who won’t have jobs going forward. It’s almost a buyer’s market. Throughout the rugby world, there are fewer players being offered contracts and the only two stable markets are Japan and New Zealand.”

Scott is relieved that type of nerve-wracking waiting game is behind him, the 30-year-old Scotland recall revelling in his second stint in the Premiership having initially been at Gloucester some years ago before switching to Edinburgh. It’s an unsettling experience he doesn’t want to ever experience again and asked by RugbyPass if he had a message for anyone currently without a deal, he said: “I remember it was stressful. I don’t envy anyone in that position, especially guys with families or young children. 

“You’re just waiting on the news each day, you are waiting for your agent to call you to say we have got somewhere but it is difficult. Everyone is in a completely different circumstance. There might be young players who don’t have much of a CV behind them. I had a bit more experience behind me and I was lucky enough to pick up something at Leicester. 

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“Just keep positive and keep yourself in that good mental headspace. Obviously, it’s good to have a backup plan in place. It is very difficult in any sort of work not knowing if you are going to have your job, your contract is maybe ending at the end of June and some guys don’t have a job for next month.”

The rejection from Edinburgh and the length of time spent seeking out an alternative did play on the mind of Scott, leaving him worried that he might no longer have had what it took to play among the club elite, never mind securing Scotland selection. “I guess you do wonder whether you can play on that level again but the best thing for me really was I came away from Edinburgh, came away from that SRU bubble as it were and really has to knuckle down to prove myself to a new bunch of coaches, a new bunch of players.

“That was really a good thing for me. I just focused on getting better every week as a rugby player, I wasn’t thinking about Scotland, I wasn’t thinking about anything bigger than that. It’s amazing what can happen, just small improvements each week and getting a run of games, staying fit for the whole season. 

“I see someone like Rory Sutherland has made the Lions squad – a couple of years ago at Edinburgh, he was third-choice and was really out of the mix and out of the picture. He had some really dark moments and was kind of wondering whether rugby was really for him and now he has made the Lions squad. You see stories like that a lot and you are perhaps closer than you think to step up a level and it’s just about staying positive, working hard every day and good things can happen.”

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Asked why his face has fitted in so well at Leicester, Scott added: “They like guys who work hard and who get on and do their jobs. I am not the type of personality to shake the boat up too much, I like to just come in and do my job and work as hard as I can and they appreciate that. I just always try to get better every day.”

Scott spent two seasons at Gloucester, from 2016 through to 2018, but the Premiership the Scotland international experienced back then is very different from what now exists. “It’s more difficult now,” he reckoned. “I don’t know whether that is because I am older. I genuinely have seen a difference, the quality of the player, squads are better now, they are deeper, they have got a lot of foreign talent that can come in if there are international guys away with England. 

“Each game is incredibly tough. It’s such a relentless league, such a good league to play in, especially with fans back now. For me, that is the appeal of it. There were times with no fans and it’s difficult to get up every single week for these hugely physical games but such a good league. I love playing in it.”

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Jon 8 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 11 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

44 Go to comments
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