Overwhelming moment for Scotland try-scorer who didn't know how to celebrate
By his admission, Will Hurd is not a prolific try-scorer and the big prop wasn’t quite sure what to do when he got his first for Scotland in the win over Portugal at the weekend.
Given the identity of the opposition, a Cristiano Ronaldo-style ‘Siuuu’ celebration might have been in order but that doesn’t really fit with no-nonsense front-row etiquette. Instead, Hurd made do with a couple of pats on the back before trotting back to halfway.
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Hide AdThat doesn’t mean it wasn’t a special moment for the loosehead who was playing his first match at Murrayfield after winning two caps on the summer tour, against Canada and Chile.


“It’s different levels being here in terms of walking in at the start with the bagpipes,” said Hurd. “I’ve seen it on TV over the years and I came up here as a child when I was younger but to do it in person was just different in terms of being emotionally overwhelming.
“I saw my family as I got off the bus. I can’t put it into words, it was just so special for me. And obviously, doing the anthem at the start as well, when the bagpipes cut out and everyone keeps going, it was very special.”
The try made it more so, even if he was at a loss about how to celebrate.
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Hide Ad“It’s not often I score,” he said. “I think that was probably my second ever professional try and I didn't really know what to do afterwards. I stood up and just sort of ran back. My family said ‘you should have celebrated!’ Maybe I missed an opportunity. It comes with experience, I guess, so next time…”
Hurd, 25, who qualifies for Scotland through his late maternal grandmother from Stirlingshire, has had to be patient for his first chance at Murrayfield. He was unlucky not to feature in last season’s Six Nations after being named in the original squad but then having to pull out because of injury.
His route into the national set-up came through the under-20s and a chance meeting with Danny Wilson, the former Glasgow Warriors head coach who was Scotland’s forwards coach at the time. Wilson spotted Hurd while he was a student at Cardiff Metropolitan University.
“It was a bit of a weird one, actually,” said Hurd. “I was at university at the time and Danny Wilson was good friends with our head coach and came in for a session during our pre-season. He sort of got wind that I was Scottish-qualified and we chatted and I said, ‘I’d love to play for Scotland one day, that’s sort of my dream’. And he said, ‘Well, if you keep training like this, I can sort of see what I can do.
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“And then a few weeks later, we got an email to say, ‘do you want to come over for under-20s trials?’ and the ball got rolling from there, really. I ended up going to the U20 Six Nations, then did the U20 World Cup the following summer. And then, yeah, here I am.”
The Leicester Tigers prop hopes he has done enough to stay in the squad for this Sunday’s final autumn Test against Australia. If he scores against them, that really would be a cause for celebration.
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