Winning Back Respect

Richard Bath Is an Award-winning Writer Based in the UK

ONE OF THE LEAST surprising aspects of the recently concluded Lions series was the fact that not one Scot won a test cap in New Zealand.

Nor was a single Scot deemed worthy of being on the bench; in truth none even came close to being considered.

That lack of a Caledonian complement was so expected that it was barely worthy of note; Tommy Seymour may have been the Lions’ top try-scorer and Stuart Hogg may have gone to New Zealand as the heir apparent for the No 15 test jersey, but even before the tour party left Blighty you would have got long odds on a Scot starting one of the matches that mattered.

Even in New Zealand – a country which owes its character to early waves of hardy Scots immigrants – the absence of the men in blue barely merited a mention.

Despite the fact that two out of the past six Lions captains have been Scots, despite the fact that Scotland beat both Ireland and Wales in this year’s Six Nations, both Warren Gatland and players from England in particular made little attempt to hide their belief that Scotland’s best players are, at best, make-weights.

That casual disregard is, says former Scotland prop Ryan Grant, who was called up to the 2013 Lions after Gethin Jenkins and Cian Healy were injured, now simply a fact of life for Scottish players.

“I’d be lying if I said that other unions didn’t think Scottish teams weren’t that good,” said Grant. “There were four Scots on the last Lions tour, three on this tour, so even though boys are putting up results against Ireland and Wales, they’re not getting the recognition, and that can only be because they’re perceived to be not as good.”