Richard Bath: He’s more than just alright, Jack

Bath’s Cuthbert has played his way into the thoughts of national coach

JACK Cuthbert has been feted by Gavin Hastings, courted by Andy Robinson and spoken of in admiring tones by that least gushing of player pundits, Simon Taylor. And there’s no doubt that the Bath full-back has the raw materials with which to fashion a career in a Scotland shirt: at 6ft 5in and the best part of 17 stones, the 24-year-old speedster cuts an imposing figure.

He blasted on to the club scene as a teenager with Bath, scoring two tries on his Premiership debut and quickly amassing a noteworthy collection of searing touchdowns on Youtube among his 60 appearances for the Recreation Ground club. Whenever he has pulled on a Scotland shirt he has impressed, whether it was at the under-19 World Cup, with Scotland A in last year’s IRB Nations Cup in Bucharest or on his solitary cap for Scotland, when he came on for Nikki Walker after 20 minutes at Murrayfield in this summer’s World Cup warm-up win over Ireland, playing wing, full-back and centre within the hour.

Cuthbert’s progress is of great interest because, while Robinson may think short-term, he always has one eye on the long term and, with the next World Cup in England in 2015, minds are already turning to blooding the players who will form the backbone of Scotland’s challenge. Up front many of the current team will still be around in 2015 but, in the back three, there will be major changes. Injury-prone 29-year-old Rory Lamont may still be an option at full-back but Hugo Southwell and Chris Paterson have played their last World Cup game and the same goes for the wings where 34-year-old Simon Danielli and 30-year-old Sean Lamont will probably have retired by 2015, while Nikki Walker will be almost 34. Cuthbert, who was in both the extended Six Nations and World Cup squads before being culled when the final squads were announced, should be well-placed to take the step up.

All of which explains why he is “gutted, so disappointed” to be watching today’s Heineken Cup clash against resurgent Glasgow from the Firhill sidelines. “I had a virus over the weekend and was ill on Monday and Tuesday, so they wouldn’t risk me in the first Heineken Cup game of the season,” he says. “The timing couldn’t have been worse because I was desperate to play in front of the Glasgow crowd, but I’ll be there watching, trying to learn as much as I can.”

Cuthbert hasn’t had much luck when travelling north of the Border with Bath. The last time he was in Glasgow, he only got off the bench for a few moments in a game that he was desperate to play in. That’s not difficult to understand: his mum is from Glasgow, with his dad’s father – who Cuthbert used to visit regularly, but who recently passed away – coming from Govan, so there are large contingents of the Cuthbert clan in Govan, Aberfoyle and Bishopbriggs who all travelled to Murrayfield to support him on his Scotland debut.

This time, the reasons for wanting to make the journey were a whole lot more varied than showboating for his family. His own international prospects are at the top of the list, but also enticing was the prospect of facing some players he really admires, plus the opportunity to play a different brand of rugby.

“Geech [Ian McGeechan, Bath’s director of rugby] doesn’t pull any punches and has had a huge effect on me as a player, and winning up here clearly means a lot to him, so that had me revved up for the game,” he says. “But Macca [scrum-half Mark MacMillan] played for Glasgow and Simon Taylor has also talked about how important it is to do well there, so this is a match that I was really looking forward to.”

Although he’s an outsized unit, Cuthbert likes to play a more free-flowing game than generally encountered in the English top-flight, and has been looking forward to playing the more expansive and non-English sides in the Heineken Cup. “The game in England is relentlessly physical and attritional, and while that’s great for someone like Simon [Taylor], who thrives on putting his body on the line week in, week out, as a back sometimes you’d just like something else in your rugby diet,” he says.

“We’re under no illusions about playing Glasgow, because with the short pitch, dodgy weather and top forwards like John Barclay and Richie Gray this is going to be a hard old battle. But it’s great to experience different rugby cultures and find the game played in different ways; we’re playing Montpellier next and that’ll be a real learning experience too. That said, I think at Bath we’re equipped to play pretty much any game. With forwards like Lewis Moody and Simon [Taylor] we can play it through the pack, or with backs like wing Tom Biggs and Matt Banahan, who’s a really powerful runner, we can play a more adventurous, expansive game. Hopefully we’ll get the latter against Glasgow.”

Yet he says that not even a Bath win could sugar the pill of missing out on a game which he believed could launch him as a genuine contender for a spot in the Scotland side. He doesn’t really hide the fact that his primary aim is to play international rugby, but having seen Scotland from the inside as part of the Six Nations and World Cup training squads, and then watched how they played in New Zealand, he’s desperate to be a part of the new Scotland team taking shape.

“The process of being involved was amazing, and although I didn’t get that final nod I felt I learned so much. Scotland have an incredibly physical back three, with guys like Rory and Sean Lamont, Simon Danielli and Nikki Walker, and being one of the bigger guys I think I’d fit in well to that style of play. At the World Cup Scotland were one of the few sides which went to play real attacking, adventurous rugby and were desperately unlucky not to go further. From talking to Andy Robinson you get the feeling of a side going places and I’d love to be part of that – playing against Ireland has really whetted my appetite.”

There are, of course, other options emerging all over the park – including Tim Visser on the wing and three young stand-offs in Glasgow’s Ruaridh Jackson and Duncan Weir, plus Cuthbert’s fellow Anglo-Scot Harry Leonard at Edinburgh. Whether Cuthbert is part of that new generation won’t become clearer this afternoon, but the big man will, at least, be looking and learning at Firhill.