Calcutta Cup win the highlight of my career

I WAS sat on a mattress on the floor of Alex Lewington’s flat in Twickenham waiting for the rest of my stuff to come out of storage when Gregor Townsend rang me out of the blue to say I was in the Scotland squad for the 2020 Six Nations.

- SCOTT STEELE

Alex is a good friend of mine from our London Irish days and he’d let me use his flat when I signed for Harlequins at the last minute after being released by London Irish. Needless to say, it came as a very pleasant surprise to hear from Gregor, especially as I had thought any chance of playing for my country had gone as I was 27 at the time. He had been in touch with me a few times before but on those occasions the phone call to tell me I was being considered was always followed by another call to say I hadn’t got in.

Playing in the Calcutta Cup win at Twickenham in 2021 is without doubt the highlight of my career. I’d been to the crazy 38-all game a couple of years before as a fan and had been on the beers all day. I remember looking down at the pitch seeing some of the lads playing for Scotland, that I’d played age-group stuff with, thinking wistfully to myself that it could have been me if I’d maybe have worked harder. So, when I actually got to play there two years later I allowed myself a moment afterwards to look up to the empty grandstand where I had been sat with my mates in 2019, to let it all sink in.

It was all I’d ever dreamed of as a kid, running around with a ball in hand, dropping goals and pretending to beat England. I think if it wasn’t for that period when I played for Scotland, and won the Premiership with Harlequins, I would have found it a lot harder to process what I am going through now – the onset of retirement.