Interview: Ryan Grant, Glasgow Warriors prop

RYAN Grant couldn’t get a game for Edinburgh when Andy Robinson was in charge of the capital club, but now the same coach has picked the Glasgow Warriors prop for Scotland

IT DOESN’T happen too often but, just occasionally, a rugby player’s career clicks magically into place as though it was manufactured with loving care and precision by an army of Swiss watch makers. The selectors ruffle your hair as if you were their favourite Labrador, the coaches ask for a quick word after training only to compliment the vigour of your display and your name is the first mentioned when the latest squad is announced. Ryan Grant is in that happy place at the moment.

The Glasgow prop is an interesting and itinerant character who has spent little of his life in Scotland. He grew up in Kirkcaldy but moved to Malaysia at the age of ten where he took up rugby with the Cobra club. A return to Scotland saw him join the army for a few years as a squaddie in the Signals Corps before his rugby career flourished. He signed first for the Borders, then for Edinburgh in 2007 and, before the season was out, he had earned a Scotland A cap against Italy in Perth.

And that was that. He ran into a brick wall. The qualified diver was left treading water. Instead of soaring into rugby’s stratosphere, his career bumped along the ground, hitting potholes and taking every blind alley along the way. Like too many professionals he was being paid to train instead of play the game. It was a frustrating three years of his life. Asked which Premier One club he represented at the time Grant replies: “Stirling County. . . I think?” which suggests he has wiped that entire miserable period from his hard drive pretty effectively.

“I had three long years at Edinburgh of being told ‘No’,” says Grant, looking back. “It was a real low being at Edinburgh, with the change of coaches. I think they had three different coaches in as many seasons. And it wasn’t through a lack of trying. I made a point of pushing myself forward all the time, speaking to the coaches and asking why I wasn’t being selected. It just wasn’t for me at Edinburgh.”

Grant is candid enough to concede that the competition at Edinburgh – Craig Smith, big Gav Kerr, Agusto Allori – were probably a bit better than him at the time. He is also honest enough to pinpoint the nadir of his stint in the capital which had him pondering a move to the Middle East to join the engineering company his dad works for in Dubai.

“I think it was probably Andy Robinson’s arrival,” says Grant with a grin on his face since the man in question is being interviewed just out of earshot. “When Andy first arrived I got dropped from the squad and didn’t play at all until the last six games of the following season, so it was about a season and a half that I went without playing a game for Edinburgh. I wasn’t involved in the squad at all – not even as 23rd man. I think six games is the most I played at Edinburgh in any one season – off the bench.

“When the opportunity came around at Glasgow, I was still in contract at Edinburgh and I spoke to my agent a few times and said: ‘I think I am done after this one.’ But he managed to sit me down and talk me through it – and between him and Sean [Lineen] they managed to convince me it would be a good idea to have a go somewhere fresh, and it worked for me.”

So how does he feel about the national coach now?

“He’s my mate now. He’s picked me, hasn’t he!”

Having spent several years looking like a deep sea diver stranded in the desert, the wrong man in the wrong place, things are looking a lot cheerier for Grant. Not only is he playing well in a tight-knit, winning Glasgow team but the overall alignment of Scotland’s rugby stars may favour him.

Allan Jacobsen is not the force he was when scrum coach Massimo Cuttitta called him the best in the world (alongside the Aussie Benn Robinson) two years ago. At the age of 33 “Chunk” could still make an effective contribution to Scotland’s next World Cup campaign in 2015, especially if the competition spurs him on to greater things. Alternatively his current summer of “rest” could turn out to be indefinite if the young pretenders to his throne impress on tour.

The next few months will be fascinating because Jacobsen’s loosehead berth – that he once had a monopoly on – is threatened not just by Grant but also by his Glasgow team-mate Jon Welsh, who stepped into the veteran’s boots in Rome at the last minute against Italy’s Martin Castrogiovanni with considerable success. Welsh made the RaboDirect dream team this season and started 17 times across all competitions. Grant got 14 starts and has just picked up the Warriors Player of the Month award for April. At 26, Grant is a year older, Welsh is at least a stone heavier. The Glasgow rivals have much in common including aching ambition and an abiding friendship.

“Jon Welsh missed pre-season, he was back for the start of season, then I got a chance when he was injured mid season,” says Grant. “We’re good friends, me and Jon, and we push each other hard all the time, whether that is in the gym or on the pitch. When Jon gets the nod ahead of me that spurs me on. Neither of us can have a bad game because we know that when we do we are out and the next guy is in.”

Scotland are longing for a dominant scrum rather than one that is hanging on with the help of Hail Marys, although it’s far too early to label Grant (or Welsh) as the answer to all of Scotland’s set piece problems.

For now the Glasgow man is in a good place and enjoying the moment. If Grant remains there throughout a tough looking summer tour then he may just earn himself the right to face the All Blacks and the Springboks in the autumn.