Jamie Bhatti jokes that he could soon take Glasgow Warriors to Champions Cup fixtures on a private jet

Have you heard the one about the flying wombat? Jamie Bhatti’s immediate future is entirely focused on Glasgow Warriors, and in particular their Champions Cup match away to Bayonne tomorrow night but, like former Scotland team-mate Stuart McInally, the prop is already plotting a future as a pilot when the time comes to step away from rugby.

Glasgow Warriors prop Jamie Bhatti is taking flyng lessons. (Photo by Ross MacDonald / SNS Group)

The man nicknamed Wombat has been taking lessons and jokes he could even save Glasgow a few quid in future by flying the team to European matches himself.

“I’m still doing the lessons, just working my way through the theory side of it just now,” he revealed. “There are nine exams to get through and I’ve done six so far. It’s hard to really do much flying with the weather just now.

“Hopefully once the weather picks up I’ll get back in the skies. I could always get a wee private plane and just fly the team around to games. Maybe save some money doing that. It would be cheaper than chartering planes everywhere. Just pay me a couple of hundred grand a year and I’ll do it!”

Warriors will look to bounce back from their opening Champions Cup loss to Northampton but are facing up to a Bayonne side that managed to draw away at Munster.

“Bayonne are a good side,” added Bhatti. “They chuck the ball around, have good ball carriers, and actually dominated Munster in the scrum. Like any French team, they’ll be passionate and have the crowd behind them.

“They should probably have beaten Munster to be honest, so it’ll be a good challenge for us. From our point of view, we have a bit of extra fire in the belly from last weekend. We want to right a few wrongs from that Northampton game.

“We haven’t started games well in recent weeks. We need to start well and produce an 80-minute performance.”

Bhatti, who turned 30 in September, is happy as a Glasgow player but reckons he might head to warmer climes before retiring.

“I would probably like to [finish my career here] but that’s partly my decision and partly Glasgow’s decision. Maybe in my latter years I’ll look to get some sun on the bones, who knows.”