When I was a boy growing up in the 80s I didn’t have posters of Simple Minds or The Proclaimers up on my bedroom wall, instead I had posters of props of the day like David Sole. I’ll never forget the Calcutta Cup match in 1990 and the slow walk out, it was unbelievable. I was in the schoolboy enclosure at the time, and you could feel the energy in the stadium.
I loved going there as a kid and, over time, I must have been to Murrayfield for well over 100 Scotland games, as a fan or as a player. It was actually on the bus to one game as a mini rugby player where I got my longstanding nickname. It was 1985 and one of the lads had just seen the film The Goonies. He pointed to me and called me Chunk after one of the lead characters who, it’s fair to say, was on the ‘chunky’ side.
Having gone to that Calcutta Cup Grand Slam match in 1990 it was all I could think about … all of the time. And 10 years later my dream of playing for Scotland came true when I ran out for a Scotland XV v Barbarians match.
That Barbarians team had literally the best players in the world in every position – people like Jonah Lomu, Craig Dowd, both the Brookes, Tim Horan etc. Not that long before I was playing in the amateur leagues and playing Jonah Lomu Rugby on the PlayStation with my mates, so it was hard to take it all in, being on the same pitch with these legends.
With Tom Smith playing really well as first-choice loose-head and only one prop on the bench – normally a tight-head, it was a couple of years before I first got capped, against Canada on a tour to North America in 2002. I was in and around the squad basically for four, five, six years before I was a regular starter. I just had to keep plugging away.
I popped my calf just before half-time in our first 2007 World Cup game against Portugal. I was devastated for it to come to that after such a long build-up to the tournament. But at least I got the opportunity to go to the next World Cup in New Zealand and started each of the group games. Against Argentina and England, we were in the driving seat at 60 minutes, so it was frustrating we came out on the wrong side of two close scorelines.
It wasn’t a great game but to beat England (15-9) and win the Calcutta Cup in 2008 was special. A couple of other games stand out in my mind from my time with Scotland, beating Australia in Australia in 2009 and South Africa at Murrayfield the following year. No one thought we’d win those games but we did, and we also beat Ireland at Croke Park the same year, which was memorable and unexpected by most in the game.
When I finished my apprenticeship as a plumber on the Friday, I started as a professional with Edinburgh on the Monday and so it all began, aged 18. I still kept my hand in as a plumber even when I was playing though. I once did a bathroom for Greig Laidlaw and Tim Visser.
I’ve always loved kitchens and bathrooms, my family were in the building trade, and whenever we went away with Edinburgh and Scotland, I was always checking out the bathrooms in the hotel rooms. It sounds weird but I used to like it when we went to new hotels to see what they’d fitted. Kitchen/bathroom fitting is what I do now as a business.
I made my Edinburgh debut in 1997, against the ACT Brumbies. It was the night before a Scotland v Australia game and I was called up because of an injury. I actually went on as hooker that day. From memory, I think I was up against Jeremy Paul. It was a massive step up, physically. I remember hitting Warwick Waugh with a good shot and he barely moved, it was like hitting a brick wall.
I feel proud and honoured to have played at Edinburgh my whole career (286 games). There were a couple of times where I maybe thought about going somewhere else but I was always looked after here, and when it came down to the crunch I wanted Edinburgh to do well. It’s a shame that we didn’t go on and win any trophies but turning the tables on Toulouse in the 2012 Heineken Cup quarter-finals, after they had hammered eight years before, was very enjoyable.
That day was one of the few occasions when it all came together. I remember us steaming into them at the first couple of breakdowns, we were like absolute mad men and turned them over and scored. I remember looking up at their whole pack and it was like they were already broken, you could see it in their eyes. It was one of the best atmospheres I’ve ever played in, including internationals.
I think it helped that there were a lot of drunk students in the crowd! In the semi-final, I think we were guilty of playing too much, too early. Ulster were just coming at us in the scrums and the lineouts and Ruan Pienaar, the scrum-half, was just nailing us back into the corner with his kicking game. He was a top operator.
One of the first big changes at Edinburgh came in the early noughties, when Todd Blackadder and Brendan Laney arrived from New Zealand. They were two top players in New Zealand and everything became a lot slicker and more professional in our approach.
Todd was a great guy. It wouldn’t be too much of an exaggeration to say that he once saved my life. I’m not a very good swimmer at all, in pool recovery sessions they used to call me ‘Brick’ or ‘Eric’, as in the really slow swimmer ‘Eric the Eel’.
One time in Australia, on Manly Beach, I got myself into some trouble. I’d gone into the water up to my waist, bobbing about just trying to calm my legs after training, while the rest of them we all crashing into waves and having a laugh on their boogie boards. Before you knew it, the riptide had taken me out up to my shoulders and then my neck, and Todd, who was with Scotland as an assistant coach, noticed I looked in some bother and mouthed ‘are you all right?’
For some reason, I nodded my head as if to say yes, but he could obviously see the fear in my eyes and he bombed over and dragged me in. Massimo Cuttitta, below, was definitely the single biggest influence on my career, not just as a coach but also as a person. Lynn Howells brought him in as scrum coach when he was in charge and wanted the team to be more direct and forward-orientated. Massimo’s passion and knowledge rubbed up on everyone.
For a couple of years I lived just around the corner from the stadium and he was always at my house, in my ear about this and that. He was one of my best friends and a mentor to me, and I am sure many people feel the same way about him.
I’m in and out of the city a lot with work and whenever I see the stadium it feels like a lifetime ago. If you’d have told me that when I was 10/11 years old, I’d play more times for Edinburgh than anyone else and win as many caps as I did for Scotland, I’d have bitten your hand off. Don’t get me wrong I worked hard for it, but I feel very lucky to have played in some amazing stadiums, travel the world, and play with and against some of the best players in the world.
When I started, rugby was a game for all shapes and sizes and it was the first sport where I felt like I belonged. It’s fair to say, I owe a lot, and I gave a lot, to the game, including my teeth. Not wearing a gumshield is my only regret but, thankfully, I’ve found a very reputable dentist in Turkey, Antlara Dental, who is going to fix them. I’m not going to go all ‘Hollywood’ but just having a full set of straight teeth will be nice!
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