'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
After their 5/0 start, I had the Crusaders to finish Top 4 only…they lost the plot in Perth but will reload and back themselves vs 4th placed Rebels…
3 Go to commentsBoth nations missed a great opportunity to book a game that would have had a lot of interest from around the world. I understand these games can’t be organised in 5 minutes but they should have found a way to make it happen. I don’t think Wales are ducking anyone but it’s a bad look haha.
3 Go to commentsIt will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
2 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to commentsA long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates life or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is here and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
6 Go to commentsShame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
3 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
6 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
6 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
3 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
28 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
2 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
3 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
3 Go to commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
1 Go to comments