Chris Cusiter ready to make Test return after difficult year

Published on Thursday 18 August 2011 16:59

THE challenge of making it into Scotland's World Cup squad may be uppermost in the minds of the home players who take to the field tomorrow for the final EMC warm-up Test match but, for Chris Cusiter, merely returning to the field will be a massive step forward.

The 29-year-old scrum-half last played for Scotland in March 2010, when he captained the team to a famous win over Ireland at Croke Park in Dublin - a triumph that ruined the Irish bid for a Triple Crown. Almost from that moment on he has fought a debilitating knee injury that, five months later, was finally diagnosed as not the condition initially suspected but a fractured kneecap, requiring an operation that was to take him out of the game until April of this year.

For a player who started the Andy Robinson period as first-choice skipper and scrum-half it was a major plunge into rugby's equivalent of the abyss.

Even when he returned to the field with three games for Glasgow and headed to Australia to play three more with Southern Districts, his bad luck continued when he returned to Glasgow training for a week before the Scotland World Cup camp convened and suffered a calf strain.

It was not a serious injury, but one that needed rest. So, more gym work, more rowing machines and weight-training with few friends, and a sliding fear that he may not make the plane to New Zealand after all.

"If you'd said last April that I wouldn't be playing for another year I never would have believed that," he said. "But it dragged on and I had a lot of dark times during that period because it just wasn't getting better, and then all of a sudden it did get better and you reassess your goals and where you are.

"For me, they were then to get fit by the end of the season, play some games and go to Australia and play some games, and everything there worked out well. Then I came back and picked up the calf (strain], and every day, when everyone else in the squad was training and only me and Euan (Murray] weren't, you do feel you're getting left behind.

"I wasn't fit to play in the first game (against Ireland] and so there wasn't much time left, and it did cross my mind (failing to make the World Cup], because it didn't seem to be improving but now it has and I feel 100 per cent.

"I find it hard to stay positive sometimes, especially when you go past timescales you're given and aren't better. I kept trying to take part in things a little too early, so I had to step back a bit and with James Robson (Scotland team doctor] and the physios and coaches we put a plan together with a time-scale to work with, and that worked.

"I was able to rest, recover and rehab without being put under pressure to train too early, and then when I was ready to train about a week and a half ago I trained and it felt really good. So the plan worked and I'm grateful for that, and for the extra time to get ready."Now it's positive again and I'm looking forward to playing on Saturday and being involved with Scotland for the first time in a long time, which for me is a really big achievement."

Despite having played 52 times for Scotland, injuries to shoulder, head and knee in particular, and the form of rivals Mike Blair and Rory Lawson, have deprived him of many more caps.

Cusiter views the injuries philisophically and dismisses a query as to whether his combative style and enthusiasm for putting his body on the line might have contributed.

"There are other scrum-halves who are probably more combative that don't get injured. I don't think I'm particularly injury-prone. There's nothing I could do about getting hit in the place I was on my knee or getting tackled and dislocating a shoulder. All of the serious injuries I've had have been just impacts or one-off impacts, which is just bad luck in my book."

So highly-rated is Cusiter at his best that Robinson said that he might have taken him and Murray, the tighthead prop now recovered from an Achilles injury, to New Zealand even if they had not been involved this weekend, but he told both players that they had to make this deadline. The medical plans were, therefore, drawn up around a return this weekend and so they are delighted at winning places on the bench. Now, the focus is on getting on the field and regaining match fitness and form as quickly as possible.

"I'm 100 per cent fit now so I could have started (against Italy]," said Cusiter, "but Mike (Blair] got back training quicker than I did. I don't feel behind in terms of the skills work we've done. Fitness, yes, I'd have liked to have had a bit more running, but if I do get selected for the 30 there is still time to make that up.

"I'm just really grateful for this opportunity and hopefully now I'll get off the bench and show that I'm fit and worthy of going on the plane."