'Non-selection was the hardest...He just said, 'You're in a competitive position''
Alex Dunbar doesn’t enjoy looking back – not after the year he’s had, not after the hardship he’s endured. Nor does he dare gaze too far ahead, knowing how quickly those at the top can be walloped off their perch in the savage world of professional rugby.
His last of 10 seasons at Glasgow Warriors was brutal. Out of the team, dogged by injuries, contract expiring. The beefy specimen who had once been among Scotland’s premier backs had become a seldom-seen squad player as a host of burgeoning centres elbowed him aside.
Light years away from the Test scene as the World Cup loomed, Dunbar went on loan to Newcastle Falcons, where he injured a groin and briefly feared he might have to pack it in altogether. In those grim days, he would torture himself with doubt, dread running into rugby fans on the long country walks that became his escape route.
“The hardest thing was that everyone kept asking me the same questions over and over,” Dunbar says. “When you’re away from rugby, if you take the dog away wandering, the last thing you want to talk about is more rugby.
“You’re over-thinking, everything runs through your head – what am I doing wrong? Is there anything that’s me? What do I need to change? You start doubting yourself.
“If you’re in for one game, you sometimes feel like you need to overplay. You were making silly mistakes because you felt like you needed to get into the game more. You were running around looking for opportunities to get into the game.”
On Glasgow duty last season, eight appearances and 314 minutes were Dunbar’s lot. He’d be starting one week, jettisoned the next. He was involved in three autumn Tests but as his appeal to Dave Rennie, the Warriors coach, waned, so his international prospects plummeted.
“I sat there on the phone crying"@rtagive 's road to @GlasgowWarriors was uniquely troubled, as @JLyall93 found out. A truly remarkable origin story: https://t.co/05fnjO2dq2
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) November 21, 2019
“The non-selection thing was the hardest to take because when I did play, I didn’t think I played badly,” he says. “Every time we [Rennie and Dunbar] had conversations, I said I needed more game time. Two or three games, you start to get that sharpness again.
“If I could string two or three games together, I felt I’d be where I wanted to be. You get a chance, you’re back out, you get a chance, you’re back out, so I never really got going.
“He just said, ‘You’re in a competitive position’, but the whole squad is competitive. You’d just get a bit disheartened sometimes when you feel you’d played well and you deserved a crack the next week and obviously as things go on you’ve not got much left on your contract.”
This lame exit was all the harder to take because of what Dunbar had given to Glasgow. He was part of a young, talented and ravenous Scottish core that grew with the club and helped drive it to the lofty status it now enjoys, winning the Pro12 title, its first major silverware, along the way four years ago.
Finn Russell, Stuart Hogg, Duncan Weir, Mark Bennett, Ryan Wilson, Pete Horne, Chris Fusaro, Jonny Gray and a heap more besides were part of the crop that took Warriors to next level. It is hard to dispute Glasgow’s decision to move on a high-earning player who their coach clearly did not fancy, but to leave as Dunbar did stung.
“Coming up through age-grades and playing for the best part of nine-and-a-half years, it was quite disappointing,” he says.
“I don’t know if it left a bit of a sour taste the way it worked out – it’s just the way it is. It’s done now. There’s no point in dwelling on the last six months-a year. I’d rather remember the good times, playing regularly, some great wins with some great people.”
There is anxiety among Glasgow fans that Dunbar was allowed to depart, that Rennie was too quick to do without him and that the same fate might befall Huw Jones, another wonderfully talented centre who has endured a similarly chastening year.
Although a brilliant player, Jones has barely raised a gallop in two seasons at Glasgow and has scarcely been seen this term in a backline that, on recent form, is sorely lacking in sparkle. The word is that Jones is keen to get out on loan, but that Glasgow want to keep hold of him.
“He’s a good player, and I suppose similar to myself he’s struggled to get regular, consistent game time,” Dunbar says.
“The couple of games I’ve watched this season when he’s played, he’s played well. But he never really gets the chance to back it up. It’s tough for him because if you’re not playing, confidence, everything… he’s a good player and I fully expect him to get back up to that level where he should be.”
In June, with his future uncertain, Brive offered Dunbar a lifeline, a one-year deal and a much-needed change of scene.
He is only 29 and playing regularly for the Top 14’s promoted side. For the first time in an age, he feels settled and content. There’s still a gnawing, though, an itch to get back to where he was, back in Gregor Townsend’s Scotland team.
After the awful Six Nations and even more heinous World Cup, there is a mountain of pressure on the coach this season. For all that he can call upon a dazzling array of centres, few are as effective as Dunbar at smashing through shoulders and not even Duncan Taylor is as formidable when wedged limpet-like over ball on the jackal.
“We’ve got some very good players, strong ball-carriers,” Dunbar says. “I certainly offer a different dimension with the way I play. A lot of my game’s based on physicality, defensive work, getting over the ball at the breakdown. It’s something I pride myself on. Not a lot of Scottish centres do that.
“It’s the good thing about the squad depth – if we want to play a certain way, we’ve got players that can do that, but we’ve also got players who can play a different way.
“Like I say, I think I can still contribute well and if I get the chance, I’d love to do it.”
WATCH: The Season 5 – Episode 4
A must-win fixture against neighbouring Tauranga Boys High School puts the team’s success in the firing line.
Comments on RugbyPass
“South African franchises would be powerhouses if we had all our overseas based players back in situ. We would have the same unbeatable aura the Toulouses, Leinsters or Saracens of this world have had over the last decade or so.” Proof that Jake white does not understand the economics of the game in SA. Players earning abroad are not going to simply come back and represent the bulls. But they might if they have a springbok contract.
22 Go to commentsA lot of fans just joined in for the fun of it! We all admire O'Gara and what he has done for La Rochelle
3 Go to commentsThe RFU will find a way to mess this up as usual. My bet is there will be no promotion into the the Premiership, only relegation into National League One. Hopefully they won’t parachute failed clubs into the league at the expense of clubs who have battled for promotion.
2 Go to commentsWell that’s the contracts for RG and Jordie bought and paid for. Now, what are the chances we can persuade Antoine to hop over with all the extra dosh we’ll have from living at the Aviva & Croke next season…??? 🤑🤑🤑
3 Go to commentsWow, that’s incredible. Great for rugby.
3 Go to commentsYou probably read that parling is going to coach the wallaby lineout but if not before now you have.
14 Go to commentsIf someone like Leo Cullen was in O’Gara’s place I don’t hear Boo-ing. It’s not just that La Rochelle has hurt Leinster and O’Gara is their Irish boss. It’s the needle that he brings and the pantomime activity before the game around pretending that Munster were supporting LaRochelle just because O’Gara is from Cork. That’s dividing Irish provinces just to get an advantage for his French Team. He can F*ck right off with that. BOOOOO! (but not while someone is lying injured)
3 Go to commentsDid the highlanders party too hard before the game? They were the pits.
1 Go to commentsWhat a player! Not long until he’s in the England side, surely?
2 Go to commentsHe seems to have the same aura as Marcus Smith - by which I mean he’s consistently judged as if he’s several years younger than he actually is. Mngomezulu has played 24 times for the Stormers. When Pollard was his age he had played 24 times for South Africa! He has more time to develop, but he has also had time to do some developing already, and he hasn’t demonstrated nearly as much talent in that time as one would expect. If he is a generational talent, then it must be a pretty poor generation.
4 Go to commentsThe greatest Springbok coach of all time is entirely on the money. Rassie and Jacques have given the south african public a great few years, but the success of the springbok selection policy will need to be judged in light of what comes next. The poor condition that the provincial system is currently in doesn’t bode well for the next few years of international rugby, and the insane 2026 schedule that the Boks have lined up could also really harm both provincial and international consistency.
22 Go to commentsJake White is a brilliant coach and a master in the press. This is another masterclass in media relations and PR but its also a very narrow view with arguments that dont always hold water. White wants his team to win, he wants the best players in SA and wants his team competitive. You however have to face up to the reality of a poor exchange rate and big clubs with big budgets. SA Rugby cant compete and unless it can find more money SA players will keep leaving regardless of Springbok eligibility and this happened in 2015 - 2017. Also rugby is not cricket. Cricket has 3 formats and T20 cricket is where the money is at. When it comes to club vs country the IPL is king but that wont happen because the international calendar does not clash with the club calendar in rugby. So the argument about rugby going down the same path as cricket is really a non-starter
22 Go to commentsNZ rugby seem not to have learnt anything from professional rugby. Super rugby was dying and SA left before they died with the competition. SA rugby did a u turn on their approach to international players playing overseas and such players are now selected for Bok teams. As much as each country would love to retain their players playing in local competitions, this is the way the world is evolving my friends. Move with it or stay 20 years behind the times. One more thing. NZ rugby hierarchy think they are the big cheese. Take a more humble approach guys. You do not seem to have your players best interests at heart.
3 Go to commentsBeaches? In Cardiff? Where?
1 Go to commentsHe is right , the Crusaders will be a threat. Scott Barrett, ( particularly), Fergus Burke , Codie Taylor, ( from sabbatical) etc due back soon for the Crusaders. There are others like Zach Gallagher too. People can right the Crusaders off, Top 8 , here we come !!
1 Go to commentsWe will always struggle for money to match the other sides but the least the WRU can do is invest properly in Welsh rugby. Too much has been squandered on vanity projects like the hotel and roof walk amongst others which will never see a massive return. Hanging the 4 pro sides out to dry over the last decade is now coming back to bite the WRU financially as well as on the pitch. You reap what you sow.
1 Go to commentsWhat do you get if you cross a doctor with a fish? A plastic sturgeon
14 Go to commentsWhat happened to feleti Kaitu’u? Hasnt played in a while right?
1 Go to commentsGregor I just can’t agree with you. You are trying to find something that just isn’t there. Jordie Barrett has signed until 2028. By the end of that he would have spent probably 11-12 years on Super Rugby and you say he can’t possibly have one season playing somewhere else. It is absurd. What about this scenario, the NZR play hard ball and he decides to leave and play overseas. How would that affect the competition. There seems to be an agenda by certain journalists to push certain agendas and don’t like it when it’s not to their liking. I fully support the NZR on this. Gregor needs to get a life.
3 Go to commentsHope he stays as believe he can do a great job.
1 Go to comments