MY LIFEIN RUGBY
GORDON BULLOCH
WANTING to get over the disappointment of missing out on a place in the squad named for 2001 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia, I took myself off to Vail ski resort in Colorado, a place where I’d chilled out before and played social rugby when I was 20. Out there in America, among the mountainous backdrop, rugby was the last thing on my mind until one morning at 6am I got a call saying that Phil Greening had to go home and I was needed as cover. I was ecstatic. My journey took me from Vail to Denver, to Los Angeles, to New Zealand, and then to Townsville.
The tour was only six days old when I arrived so I was there for pretty much the whole tour. Some guys go on a Lions tour and never get on or get a Test cap, but it only took me 12 minutes to get mine, as a replacement for Robin McBryde. I got my Test cap as a blood replacement for Woody (Keith Wood) in the first Test at the Gabba. It was the highpoint of the tour, taking a one-nil lead in the series with some scintillating rugby. It went downhill after that, I was dropped from the bench and we went on to lose the series 2-1.
I was delighted to be there but, overall, 2001 was a pretty unhappy tour. There was a lot of players pencilled in to start the Test series with not a lot of chance for other guys to force their way in. For me, 2005 was slightly different. On the field results say it was a complete failure, which it was for the Test team but us mid-weekers did really well. Geech (Ian McGeechan) was coach and I captained the side on three or four occasions. Even though we were away from the main spotlight of the tour, we still got to play in Auckland in front of 40,000 people. I also got on in the final Test, after Steve Thompson fell ill on the morning of the match, so to be capped on two tours was quite something.
To play for the Lions and your country is the pinnacle and you don’t get there without a lot of hard work and sacrifices. Things didn’t really go that well for me at the start. I was never the fastest, never the strongest, never the most skilful. In fact, my brother Alan got into Scotland Schools team before me even though he was two years younger, he was 16 at the time. Having only started playing hooker when I was 16/17, I always struggled with my throwing in. I was overlooked for the Scotland Schools tour to Australia because of that so that made me determined to get better, to make sure that was never the case again, and I practised very hard for a couple of summers.
Alan and I were born into rugby. Dad played to a decent level, he was a prop/No.8. He could have probably gone further but he stayed with the Hutchesons’ (Grammar School) FP club. And he was kept ou
