'This will be my year': Injury hit Scotland cap's defiant message ahead of new season

Murphy Walker says this pre-season is the best he has ever felt as the Scotland prop looks to finally put the injury issues that have tormented his career behind him.

The five times-capped Scotland tight-head has run a gamut of set-backs, from ruptured hamstrings to torn quads and neck issues over his eight-year association with the Scotstoun outfit. However, the 26-year-old says he believes the 2026/27 campaign will be his year and that he feels in the best physical shape of his life.

“I'm feeling great,” said Walker. “This is the best I've ever felt. It's the fittest I've ever been and I matched my PB in Bronco [running-based fitness assessment] and stuff.

‘This is the best I’ve ever felt’ - Glasgow prop raring to go ahead of 2026/27 season

“I managed to right some areas of my body that were struggling throughout last year. I got a week off in the summer and got a minor op done then I just wanted to get my whole body as absolutely sound as possible so I can put my best foot forward.

“I think this is my first pre-season in about four years under Franco that I can actually get a run at it. So I'm feeling great. Lungs are hurting a wee bit, but that’s as expected.

“My body's feeling great and I really think this will be my year. I'm really looking forward to it."

Walker started for Warriors in their pre-season clash with Newcastle Red Bulls at the weekend. The hosts ran out 47-31 winners at Kingston Park in a match where they named a vastly more experienced side compared to the young Glasgow team.

The final score wasn’t important, as much as Walker dislikes losing even in a ‘friendly’ match, with the game a chance to get some minutes in the players’ legs against a strong opponent. The visitors also mounted a credible second half fight back to get the result closer than the 35-7 half-time score suggested it might be.

“Nobody likes losing,” added Walker. “Franco [Smith, head coach] says it, nobody likes losing, he hates losing. It's one of those things, yes, it's pre-season, but it'll hurt us a wee bit. I think we kind of need that before we go on to Bath and then before we get into the first regular season of the URC.

"So, yeah, it stings a bit, but as every good team does, we'll go back to the drawing board. It gives us something to look at.

"We've not had footage or we've not had anything to look at to kind of right or wrong. So that'll be the first one for the year, which will be good to see."

Youthful Glasgow side show spirit in defeat to experienced Newcastle Red Bulls team

Walker was Glasgow’s most experienced player in the starting XV for the fixture with the team made up largely of recent Academy graduates. He joked that he suddenly felt like one of the ‘old boys’ in the group before turning to veteran front-row compatriot Sam Talakai, who was on the bench.

He added: “I think coming with a team that we've been grafting away at for the past six weeks and finally being able to put it on the field was pretty special with a lot of young boys. I was looking around and thinking I'm one of the young boys and you've got boys that are 19 and some boys that are 18 and I'm now one of the old boys.

“Then I looked across at Sammy and was like, OK, I'm still not one of the old boys yet. So that was good.”

The game itself was an entertaining contest with Warriors crossing for five tries in total, four of those in the second half. Head coach Franco Smith described it as ‘mission accomplished’ at full time as they came through the fixture with no injuries and some well tested players.

“I think we've been chomping at it a bit for a game for a wee while now,” said Walker. “After the first block finished up there, we were like, yeah, we're game ready here.

“We had a lot of time off, which kind of served us well. We could come in pretty fresh and then once you get into the actual training sessions you're like, OK, we're already looking forward to this game.

“It took the boys a bit by surprise the first half, but once you got in it you saw a lot of young boys putting their hands up, stepping up in their jersey they'd never played in before. So it was pretty exciting for us.”

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