MY LIFE IN RUGBY
I’d take the rough with the smooth every time
CHRIS CUSITER
THE FORMER BRITISH & IRISH LIONS, SCOTLAND, BORDERS, PERPIGNAN, GLASGOW AND SALE SHARKS SCRUM-HALF
Exciting times: Chris Cusiter playing for the Lions against Taranaki in 2005
PICTURE: Getty Images
BEFORE my first cap against Wales in 2004, they brought in some ex-internationals, Scottish rugby legends, to come and have dinner with the team on the Wednesday night and I’ll never forget Finlay Calder was sat at our table. I was saying about how I would be making my debut and seeing I was a bit nervous, he said something like, ‘don’t worry, Chris, getting your first cap is very much like losing your virginity’. To which I replied, ‘I don’t know about you but there weren’t 80,000 people watching when I lost my virginity’!
Luckily for me, Mike Phillips wasn’t on the scene for Wales then. I’m not sure how I would’ve handled his chat on debut! Scrum-halves, as we all know, like a bit of chat and he was the worst, so irritating! Obviously he was good but he created a lot of enemies, he was just so aggressive, there was no wit or charm to it.
Over the next two years I played pretty much every game for Scotland and the momentum from that, and the form I was showing, contributed to me getting a Lions callup in ’05. I think those early years were the most enjoyable for me because it was all so new and exciting and it was this dream I had to play for Scotland, in the Six Nations, and in all the greats stadiums around the world had its own charm.