Gregor Townsend - Talk of the Toony - The Autobiography of Gregor Townsend

Copyright Copyright Dedication Preface 1. Borders Crossing 2. Odyssey 3. Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina 4. Breakthrough 5. Rebels with a Cause 6. Last Orders and First Steps 7. Pride of Lions 8. Recurving 9. Vive la différence! 10. Le beau jeu 11. Feeling Blue 12. Full Circle 13. Spirits Lifted: Rugby World Cup 2003 Diary Part 1 14. Breaking Point: Rugby World Cup 2003 Diary Part 2 15. Farewell to All That 16. Swimming with Sharks 17. State of the Union Career Statistics Acknowledgments Photo section About the Publisher

HarperCollinsPublishers

1 London Bridge Street,

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in 2007 by HarperSport an imprint of HarperCollins London

© Gregor Townsend 2007

Gregor Townsend asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.

Source ISBN 9780007251131

Ebook Edition © MARCH 2015 ISBN: 9780008140663

Version: 2015-03-13

Dedication Dedication Preface 1. Borders Crossing 2. Odyssey 3. Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina 4. Breakthrough 5. Rebels with a Cause 6. Last Orders and First Steps 7. Pride of Lions 8. Recurving 9. Vive la différence! 10. Le beau jeu 11. Feeling Blue 12. Full Circle 13. Spirits Lifted: Rugby World Cup 2003 Diary Part 1 14. Breaking Point: Rugby World Cup 2003 Diary Part 2 15. Farewell to All That 16. Swimming with Sharks 17. State of the Union Career Statistics Acknowledgments Photo section About the Publisher

Dedicated to rugby in the Borders, and the hope that it can rise again.

Have you ever stopped and wondered why

Border rugby is so strong

I’ll tell you how it started, just listen to my song

How the Reivers wrought disorder

And the rule of law was lame

And the Bonnie Scottish Borders became

The Kingdom of the Game

Frae Gala, Hawick and Melrose

The Gospel quickly spread

The magic of its spell rose

Frae Selkirk don tae Jed

Frae Kelsae doon on Tweedside

Tae the muckle toon they came

And they fought tae find the best toon

In the Kingdom of the Game

Their features carved in granite

Their hearts as stout as stone

They won the ball and ran it

They made the game their own

Now many Border Callants

Bring honour and great fame

Tae the heartbeat of the Nation

Tae the Kingdom of the Game

‘The Kingdom of the game’ (Henry Douglas)

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright Copyright Copyright Dedication Preface 1. Borders Crossing 2. Odyssey 3. Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina 4. Breakthrough 5. Rebels with a Cause 6. Last Orders and First Steps 7. Pride of Lions 8. Recurving 9. Vive la différence! 10. Le beau jeu 11. Feeling Blue 12. Full Circle 13. Spirits Lifted: Rugby World Cup 2003 Diary Part 1 14. Breaking Point: Rugby World Cup 2003 Diary Part 2 15. Farewell to All That 16. Swimming with Sharks 17. State of the Union Career Statistics Acknowledgments Photo section About the Publisher HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk First published in 2007 by HarperSport an imprint of HarperCollins London © Gregor Townsend 2007 Gregor Townsend asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books. HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication. Source ISBN 9780007251131 Ebook Edition © MARCH 2015 ISBN: 9780008140663 Version: 2015-03-13

Dedication Dedication Dedication Preface 1. Borders Crossing 2. Odyssey 3. Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina 4. Breakthrough 5. Rebels with a Cause 6. Last Orders and First Steps 7. Pride of Lions 8. Recurving 9. Vive la différence! 10. Le beau jeu 11. Feeling Blue 12. Full Circle 13. Spirits Lifted: Rugby World Cup 2003 Diary Part 1 14. Breaking Point: Rugby World Cup 2003 Diary Part 2 15. Farewell to All That 16. Swimming with Sharks 17. State of the Union Career Statistics Acknowledgments Photo section About the Publisher Dedicated to rugby in the Borders, and the hope that it can rise again.

Preface

1. Borders Crossing

2. Odyssey

3. Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina

4. Breakthrough

5. Rebels with a Cause

6. Last Orders and First Steps

7. Pride of Lions

8. Recurving

9. Vive la différence!

10. Le beau jeu

11. Feeling Blue

12. Full Circle

13. Spirits Lifted: Rugby World Cup 2003 Diary Part 1

14. Breaking Point: Rugby World Cup 2003 Diary Part 2

15. Farewell to All That

16. Swimming with Sharks

17. State of the Union

Career Statistics

Acknowledgments

Photo section

About the Publisher

Preface

Happiness isn’t something you experience; it’s something you remember.

Oscar Levant

15 September 2006

I suppose we are never angrier than when we feel ourselves to be at fault. In only the third game of this season – my final season – I played as badly as I’ve ever done in my career. I was playing for the Border Reivers down in Wales, and we succumbed to another defeat – this time against the Ospreys. However, my own disappointment was much greater than that of my team-mates. This wasn’t entirely to do with my error-strewn performance. The match also forced me to admit an undeniable truth – my rugby career was all but over.

Throughout my career, I would set myself goals of getting into club, Scotland or Lions teams, but my real focus was on trying to improve every time I got my hands on a rugby ball, trying to play the perfect game. A few months previously I had announced publicly – and set as a goal – that I was going to retire at the end of the season. It wasn’t the most positive of targets and for the first time in my career, I began to feel demotivated. Now, showing signs of being unable to reach the standards I had set for myself, I feared that I’d lose the respect of others, never mind my own self-respect.