Dragons v Glasgow: Gregor determined to shine as he has his turn in the sun

As if bowing out to a Glasgow team shorn of half a dozen players to rest/injury was not bad enough, Wasps had to witness the deciding try of the game scored by a someone who for years seemed destined to be tagged "a journeyman player".

It's an ironic turn of phrase since Colin Gregor has been at Glasgow for years but was going precisely nowhere - at least until recently.

At the ripe old age of 29 the one-time stand-off has shuffled into the scrum-half shirt vacated by Chris Cusiter and miraculously burst into bloom with the sort of late flowering that usually witnessed on Gardeners' World. Not only did Gregor, known to all as "Budgie", get on the end of Colin Shaw's offload to score that vital try, some of his performances for Glasgow in recent weeks have prompted speculation that he might even have made it into Andy Robinson's extended Scotland squad.

In the event it didn't quite happen and, instead, Gregor must make do with a slot in the A team to play Ireland on Friday, a full five years after making his debut for Scotland's reserve team against the Maori in the final of the Churchill Cup.

Gregor is perfectly capable of doing a shift at nine, ten, 13 or even 15 but he will slot in at his favoured scrum-half slot when Glasgow play the Dragons in Newport this afternoon in their final Heineken Cup Pool 6 game - a dead rubber for both sides. And he looks likely to fill a bench spot for Scotland A on Friday. As he explains, he has come full circle, having played scrum-half at school before Watsonians turned him into a stand-off. It was in that role that Glasgow signed him but the enforced move into the No.9 shirt has given Gregor's career a timely boost.

It has been seven years since he signed for Glasgow so why has it taken him so long to prove his worth, and won't the return of Chris Cusiter relegate him back to square one, or at least the substitutes' bench yet again?

"I don't really know," he says. "I think I played in fits and starts for Glasgow and never really got going as I maybe should have done? I guess in the early years I was seen as a sevens player and I just filled in occasionally at Glasgow since they had a pretty settled side at the time."

"As for Chris's return, I'll just have to cross that bridge when I come to it. I've enjoyed getting a run of games and I have to make sure that I am playing well so that (coach) Sean (Lineen) has a difficult decision to make."

Neutral observers would not normally cross the road to watch a Dragons/Warriors match, with both sides usually bringing out the worst in each other. At least Lineen's men go into the game on a high after besting Wasps last Sunday. The way the Warriors' young pack outmuscled the Londoners gives hope that this squad of players may soon emulate the play-off heroics of last season's squad.

"I think that Glasgow has had a really good spirit throughout the time that I have been here but we've maybe just shown it in one-off matches, although last season went really well," says Gregor.

"I don't think this squad is too far away from being a good team because we have lost a lot of games this season by narrow margins. When we go over them, it's just the little things that are letting us down and the youngsters in the squad are becoming more battle hardened.

"We are a team with no real superstars so we can't afford to have anyone not playing well on the day if we want to win matches and I think that, on a couple of occasions, we maybe haven't done that."

As for any thoughts of taking the ultimate step into the international limelight, Gregor hasn't exactly abandoned the idea but neither does he waste time wondering, preferring to concentrate on "controlling the controlables".

"The A game against Ireland is another chance to represent your country and players have to realise that and equip themselves accordingly. It's another chance to show what you can do, a step up from the Magners and the Heineken Cup.

"There is still pressure on you but, as you get older, you realise what is important and what is less important and you differentiate between the two. Every match is a chance to express yourself to the best of your abilities and, if you can do that, then you've got to be content."