Group Stage, Group B
Day 3
Back in 2005 and as an 18-yeai-old who had already sampled the world of Test rugby, John Barclay was in Wellington trying to work out whether he really wanted toplay any more. Andnot without reason. Plucked straight from his school side and put into the Scotland Test squad, he had gone from hero to zero in next to no time and was alone and a long way from home. Back in Wellington this week, preparing for tomorrow's vital World Cup game against Argentina when a win could result in Scotland confronting the All Blacks in the quarter-finals, Barclay concedes that his selection, one month after his 18th birthday, was very much in the manner of Scotland's coach at the time, Matt Williams. The Australian, whois not noted for being backward when it comes to the grand or flash gesture, added Barclay to his first squad on the back of not much more than an eye-catching performance in a schools cup final.
If it was designed to inspire Barclay or any young Scot like him, but it failed. Ditched without playing, the flanker went from being would-be international to a Glasgow also-ran; loaned out to a junior side and just about getting a game with their reserves. "Selected for the squad and then the week after, playing for the thirds. It just snowballed out of control," Barclay says. Add a nasty hip injury and you can see why he was depressed, even before moving so far from home. "I had been thinking about quitting rugby altogether. I'd been injured, wasn't enjoying the game and started thinking this isn't what I'd expected. My mates were calling to say they were partying and I was wondering whether I'd done the right thing. "I played my last game in the April for my school and had not played at all before I was put in the squad. It was quite tough."
Luckily for Scotland, emersion in New Zealand rugby with Marist St Pats was enough to stoke the fires and Barclay returned to Glasgow more rounded and ready for action. "Coming out here to do the Macphail scholarship made me appreciate rugby again," Barclay says as he ambles around the harbour during a break in training. "I saw how much the game meant to people here and it made me realise how lucky I was. "Everyone out here wanted to play professional rugby but couldn't even get in their first XV because there were so many quality players." Unfortunately for Scottish rugby, it took a little longer to see the light. Williams, a man who divided the nation, especially when he ended Gregor Townsend s 82-Test career, hung around for 16 months winning three matches from 17 before another former teacher, Frank Hadden, took over. Haddeh, the well-respected coach of Edinburgh assumed full control in September 2005 for a four-year stint that started brightly enough with a win over France and a couple of Calcutta Cups, but began to go wrong in 2007 with the last World Cup.
First, there was the decision to run up the flag and play a second-string side against New Zealand - Barclay's painful Test debut - followed by the quarter-final, against Argentina, that came to typify the Hadden era. He lasted a couple more years, but even today there are members of the 2007 squad who wonder if an unlikely victory over Argentina was allowed to slip through Scottish fingers that October night in Paris when, seemingly done and dusted, Hadden at last slipped the leash and gave his players their heads. He emptied his bench and for 20 minutes the Pumas, one of the teams of the tournament, were run ragged. Scotland missed out on a semi-final by six points, but in the end the coach went because of his results in the Six Nations and two seasons when his bosses were less than satisfied with one win, something the current coach, Andy Robinson, could not better last time around either. However, Robinson's Scotland go into tomorrow's game with wins over Australia and the world champions South Africa behind them, and with five consecutive victories.
A sixth would equal Scotland's 1990 grand slam season and, according to Barclay, there is abelief in camp that 2007 is about to be avenged by a team Robinson has crafted, and not without a little pain, specifically for the job. According to Townsend, now at the heart of Robinson's coaching team, the hardest game of the Robinson era created the toughest selection problems. Al Kellock, named as tournament captain a monthago.doesnot even make the bench; Dan Parks, so often the guarantee of points, stands aside for the still-maturing talents of Ruaridh Jackson at fly-half; and even Barclay -despite being part of the squad that twice beat the Pumas in Argentina last year and clearly a touchstone selection for his head coach - says the back-row competition with Ross Rennie may have been a little close for comfort. A few years ago Barclay might even have doubted himself. Not now. With 30 caps in the bag he thinks he and the team have come through their rough patch. "I certainly knew that it was a close call based on the last two games," Barclay says, "but I knew that although I did not have a good game against Romania I had a strong one 10 days earlier against Italy, and in the Six Nations.
"The feeling in camp is good. We know we haven't played our best yet, but (against Romania and Georgia) we've played some tricky games and come away from Inver-cargill with nine points. Maybe it's even worked to our advantage. The media have written us off and the underdog tag is one we have coped with well in the past." Now, though, it feels like time for Scotland to right the wrongs of 2007 - and 2005 - and celebrate the Robinson era with its most important win to date while laying the foundation for the next big day when the coach faces his old employer, England, in the final pool game. But that is for another day. Today Barclay celebrates his 25th birthday after visiting friends such as Jono Phillips, the former Scotland Under-2ls coach who was his mentor here in 2005 and helped get Barclay through those tough three months. He says: "It was hard to come away and live by myselfbut it was good for me to grow up and enjoy rugby again.
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