Luke Crosbie savours Edinburgh landmark and reveals Christmas wrestle with hardman to earn Love Island girlfriend approval
Saturday will be a landmark occasion for Luke Crosbie as he makes his 100th appearance for Edinburgh and the Scotland flanker is looking forward to sharing the day with his girlfriend and family.
The capital side will be in Italy to take on Benetton in a winner-takes-all showdown where a place in the United Rugby Championship play-offs is at stake. It’ll be a proud day for Crosbie and his family who have supported him from the very beginning. He hopes some of them can make it to Treviso for the match, along with girlfriend Belle Hassan, the former Love Island star and social media influencer. “I think they’re still trying to organise it,” he said. “I know it’s a pretty hard place to get to but it will either be that or they’ll watch it at home with a big cake from Costco! Either way they’ll be happy.”
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Hide AdCrosbie said Belle is fairly new to rugby but is getting to grips with the game along with her father, the actor Tamer Hassan who is best known for portraying on-screen hardmen in films like The Football Factory, The Business and Layer Cake. “She loves it and her dad loves it as well, and her mum, so they’re big supporters,” said Crosbie.


A renowned Millwall fan, Tamer Hassan famously played the role opposite a West Ham-supporting Danny Dyer in The Football Factory and Crosbie said that some of Hassan’s tough-guy persona is true to life. “We get along well,” said Crosbie. “He’s a tough man, like. One the first times I met him he wanted to make sure I could protect his daughter so it turned into a little sparring match at Christmas! I passed the test.”
Tamer Hassan was at Murrayfield over the festive period to watch the Edinburgh-Glasgow game and Belle has been a regular at the Hive this season. “My girlfriend’s new to the rugby scene,” said Crosbie. “We’ve been together for about six months but she’s a big support. She’s starting to realise how sore you are after the games! She’s got a big job keeping me fed but she’s doing a good job so far.”
A product of Livingston RFC and Currie, Crosbie has grown into a real local hero for Edinburgh. He broke into the Scotland under-20 team in 2017 and made his Edinburgh debut later that year against Zebre, under Richard Cockerill. He is now a key player for club and country and won his eighth cap in the Six Nations win over Wales in February. He’s competing for places in the Edinburgh back row with the likes of Jamie Ritchie, Hamish Watson and Bill Mata and says that having such high quality team-mates helps drive up standards.
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Hide Ad“Coming into the club, they’re forcing you to be better,” he said. “It’s competitive every single time you’re out training. You’re playing for your home club and the talent you’ve got surrounding you pushes you to be a better player. When you get selected in the team and you look around you, at the talent we’ve got in the back row, it is a big achievement to get to 100 games.


“It means a lot, coming through the club. I never thought I’d get to 100 but it’s come up pretty quick. I’m 27 so 100 games is an all right stat which I’ll take. I’m just happy to be able to play that much for my home club and looking forward to it. We know the importance of the game. We need to win it but that’s the same for all our games and we’re just going in with the same preparation. We know how important it is but it’s about us delivering away from home and getting the job done.”
Crosbie grew up in Mid-Calder and Livingston and his route to the pinnacle of rugby proves you don’t have to come through the private school system to make your mark in the sport. He said his family supported him all the way. “My dad and my uncle especially,” he said. “They drove to under-20 games in France. And when we played London Irish in one of the first games when I was breaking through, they drove there. They rarely miss games. No-one in my family really knew what rugby was [when I started playing]. I saw it at Livingston and kind of just picked it up and that’s it. Now here we are at potentially 100 games. It’s been a pretty mad ride, to be fair.”
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