In today's Sunday Times, Glasgow's Rory Lamont talks about a whirlwind six months that has seen him become a full Scottish international after fears injury would force him to give up rugby altogether.
Rory's recent success and good health demonstrates the thinness of the line that divides dreams from nightmares. Chance gave him the opportunity to shake off four years of chronic injury but, once over the pain, he has been catapulted from obscurity to the test arena in only a few weeks.

At 22, Rory is relatively inexperienced, with players two and three years younger having played more senior rugby simply because they have not had the same injury troubles.

As a 17-year-old, Rory's path to the top seemed assured. He was leaving King Edward VII school in Melton Mowbray, where he had moved from Blairgowrie when still at primary age, to study sports science and human biology at Northampton University with a place guaranteed at the city club's rugby academy.

Rory could play anywhere in the back division — as a teenager he had even played fly-half — but had decided that wing and full-back were his best options. Then came the injuries. A knee put him out for six months, a torn muscle led directly to a pelvic problem that needed nine months' rest and has dogged him ever since, and then a wrongly diagnosed shoulder injury kept him out of rugby for a further eight months.

He says: "It was a really difficult time, but the academy coach had promised me some sort of contract at Northampton. Then I was seconds late for a second-team game, did that shoulder playing sevens and the academy manager got sacked. That was it for me as far as Northampton were concerned."

Rory effectively gave up rugby altogether, taking part in only the occasional runaround as he completed the final year of his degree course.

Midway through that period, however, a routine operation cured the shoulder and, with qualification safely tucked away, he decided to have one final go at rugby. "I knew all my friends down there thought I was chasing a lost cause," he says. "It was something that I had to do to be happy with myself. I had to know that I had given it my best shot."

By then his older brother had made his name at Glasgow, and with Sean settled in the city, Glasgow was the obvious place for Rory to make a final stab at the top. However, the pelvic troubles would not go away, which made Glasgow the perfect place for him to settle since the club's medical team already had a wealth of information on the subject after helping John Barclay, the Scotland under-19 captain, through an identical problem.

Rory adds: "It had been four years since it first started. Eight weeks into the season it flared up again and I feared I would have to call it a day. But I went to the Glasgow physios and they gave me some really simple exercises and they have made a huge difference. I have not looked back since. For the first time since I was 18 I can run without pain. It felt like I had won the lottery."

Rory arrived in Scotland aiming to play for Glasgow Hawks and hoping to do well enough to attract the interest of the professional coaches, but they had tagged his talent and, after only one club warm-up game, invited him to play professional friendlies against Sale and Leeds. He did well enough to be offered a short-term contract and was soon a full-time fixture at the professional club. "I always knew I could do it," says Rory. "It is just about taking the opportunities. Being fit and injury-free gave me that opportunity and I was confident I could go all the way."

This article was posted on 3-Apr-2005, 13:57 by Hugh Barrow.