Twickenham 'just another gin joint' says '83 hero David Leslie

Published on Thursday 10 March 2011 20:44

HE STILL calls himself Niccolo, after the Italian philosopher Machiavelli. He laughs as he says it, but it is clear that while David Leslie may still be treading a new path of recovery from the severe injuries he suffered over two years ago, when he fell 20 feet off a roof and on to concrete, head first, he is the same character that struck fear into international defences, and some of his team-mates, 30 years ago.

Relaxing at his home in Dundee, now 52, Leslie recalls vividly aspects of the last Scotland win at Twickenham in 1983, when he and a fine Scotland team recovered from defeats to Ireland, France and Wales to march on the English capital "with nothing to lose" and emerged triumphant, 22-12, to end a 12-year wait for success at the old 'cabbage patch'.

Scotland head south this weekend with losses to France, Wales and Ireland again stuffed into the championship cabinet and with the players and coaches speaking of having "nothing to lose". For the 32-times capped flanker, who lost three times at RFU HQ, such a challenge starts in the mind. "To go down to Twickenham and win takes a bit of doing," he acknowledges. "But I don't buy into the records really. All games were difficult away from home. Going to France you had different temperatures to deal with and it was really, really noisy in the old Parc des Princes, and it was rarely a good surface to play on, and Cardiff and Dublin had their idiosyncrasies.

"I enjoyed playing in difficult locations; I liked challenges and sport is all about the mental challenge. Twickenham was one of many, and of course you wanted to win there and you knew it didn't happen often, but it is important not to see it as being something different. As soon as you put one place higher than another then you're second best. Twickenham was just another gin joint in another town that you don't want to live in; visit, yes, but not live there. It's important never to build up opponents or places, but keep yourself on an even keel.

"The bigger they are the harder they fall. There's a lot in that. Don't get carried away with anything and while it's great for the press to hype up 28 years since this or that, the challenge for the players now is the same as it ever was."

Leslie was yesterday studying pages dropped off to him by former SRU President Harvey Wright from David Barnes' new book 'Behind the Thistle', an engrossing account of life as an international rugby player from the eyes of those who wore the jersey.

Leslie is picked out astutely in it by Euan Kennedy, the former Scotland centre, who says: "David Leslie was not someone you wanted to get in the way of 48 hours before a game, let alone two hours before. He was so focused - furiously focused - the most focused individual I have ever come across, and he would be the first guy that any player in that team would put on the team-sheet to go into battle with." Leslie has since been rated by many astute observers of the game, including former Scotland coach Jim Telfer, as the best Scotland forward of all time. His unnerving focus and swashbuckling style were unique traits, but where did that match psyche come from? "It was always there," he says, "so not difficult to find. I liked to tell people that my middle name was 'Niccolo', as in Machiavelli, but it's really George.

"I also realised that you had to find something else, from some place, to be able to win at the very top level. I realised that I could find it within and it helped me to bring myself to a level where I could be better than opponents.

"I would say I did it at all levels of the game, but it was easy when you had 60,000 or 70,000 people watching you, television there, the hype and so on. It was easier then to me to find another level, and then another level and another level." We may be in danger of straying into naval- gazing psycho-babble, but it is fascinating listening to Leslie speak about what makes a good rugby player the best. Is it the ability to focus, to switch on aggression, to retain a sharp focus amid the maelstrom of a Test match, or is it the foresight, the ability to anticipate that many reckoned was Leslie's greatest trait?

"It's all of those things, but anticipation is a big one. Anticipation is better than realisation. I would say you have to have something natural there, but then you need the ability and desire to develop that skill to see ahead."

Leslie has always been refreshingly different. His children's names all begin with the letter R - Rodric, Rebeca and Rosan - "because it flows quite well with a surname beginning with 'L' I think", while all the family dogs have names that start with 'M'. The latest addition is Meikle, a nine-week old Working Spaniel who is doing a grand job of testing the Leslie co-ordination on an hourly basis.

After the accident, Leslie has been unable to return to full-time work as an architect.

He keeps himself involved, but despite incredibly recovering the use of an arm smashed by the fall after much therapy, his movement is not what it was and his speech is affected. "It's not easy, but I'm lucky. I was up there checking on a slating quotation for a couple of thousand pounds thinking 'I'm an architect with a capital A and I'm up here', when I slipped on the slates and fell on to the paving slabs. I remember coming round in hospital and thinking 'just let me go; I don't want to be a nuisance to people'. There was a lot of damage to legs, hips, head, hands, coordination, got the tremors, you name it, but you learn how to compensate and move on, and I'm lucky in that I have got other things to keep me going and supportive people around me."

Leslie's last visit to Murrayfield was in November when he was delighted to accept an invitation from the SRU to a return of the old 'players tearoom', and a function in the North Stand hosted by his Grand Slam team-mates of 1984 John Rutherford and Roy Laidlaw.

As well as being part of the team that won at Twickenham in 1983 and claimed the Grand Slam the following year, Leslie also captained an RFU President's XV, including Iain Milne and Colin Deans, that defeated England at Twickenham in 1984 in a match to mark the 75th anniversary of the famous stadium being opened.

Like many players of past generations, he struggles with aspects of the modern game but his passion for the game remains clear. He also has the same sense of belief in Scotland that he has always had, while revealing that his mother was English and that he nearly faced his cousin in a Calcutta Cup match.

"It's still a game I understand and so I enjoy watching games, and there are moments of contests that you enjoy and appreciate. I still look at Murrayfield and go 'that's my pitch'. The Calcutta Cup is a great fixture. My mother came from Manchester, but with the name 'Stewart' of all things. Father, who came from Forfar, met my mother in Manchester and they came back up to Dundee.

"I nearly played against my cousin, and if that had happened I would have given him pelters. Imagine playing for England with a name like Gordon Stewart? He was a back row but didn't make it that far - clearly he worked out the trouble he was going to get from me.

"We are all Jock Tamson's Bairns, but once you've made your mind up and cast your colours to the mast that's it. I didn't feel any affection for the English because of my mother, but I didn't feel a lot of affection for the Welsh, French, Irish, South Africans or New Zealanders either. I was, and am, Scottish and that was what mattered to me."

Underlining his belief that Al Kellock's Scotland side can defy the odds again and repeat the feat of 1983, he adds: "I'm looking forward to Sunday. When the whistle goes to start the game it's nothing each.

There are only 15 guys per side on the pitch and I like those odds.

"That is how I viewed every game when I played and it's how I view them still now. If you did it any other way you wouldn't give yourself a chance."That is the Leslie way. Machiavellian or not, it worked once and continues to play a key part in helping the great former player through the challenges of life.