Scotland on Sunday
Sun 22 May 2005

Little Biggar man

Iain Morrison

FRANK Hadden has resisted the temptation to go all experimental for the visit of the Barbarians to Aberdeen on Tuesday night. He is wise to follow that course because Scotland need a win to restore some much-needed confidence to the squad and, in a worse-case scenario, they cannot afford to allow the free-running visitors to chalk up a cricket score.

Just two uncapped players will start, not that caps are being awarded for this fixture, and another two will sit on the bench. You could argue that Scott Lawson and Kelly Brown are in the XV by default - Gordon Bulloch is on Lions duty and Jason White is unavailable because of injury - but that would be an injustice to two of Scotland's brighter prospects.

Brown was probably the more surprising choice, though he has been touted for future greatness from an early age, and captained Melrose regularly in season 2003-04, when he was only 21. He is certainly the right shape for a modern No.6. The best of the breed tend to reflect the sort of long, wiry frame that did John Jeffrey no harm, while the similarly-built Lewis Moody is among the most effective in the position in the world, and will get even better when he stops coughing up stupid penalties.

The height of these men and their relative lightness mean that they are a useful lineout addition at the tail, especially when a beefy No.8 is on duty who does not lend himself to the ball being thrown high in the air.

And shape is also impossible to avoid on the subject of Scotland's other newcomer, Lawson. The little hooker is small for a professional rugby player, and if he stands 5ft 9in, it is only because of extra-long studs screwed into his boots.

He modestly claims that his appearance in a Scotland shirt is down to "being in the right place at the right time", but for a long time he was considered too small for the job. It is possible to make too much of his size, but when the SRU shuffle the 6ft 1in and 17st-plus of Ross Ford from the third to the front row, it is obviously an issue.

Against that, Richard Cockerill's international career was constrained far less by his stature than it was by his propensity to open his mouth without engaging his brain.

Closer to home, Lawson only has to look back to the mid-1990s when a similar-sized Kevin Mackenzie kept hold of the Scotland hooker's shirt against all-comers for several seasons. The Glasgow man is quick across the ground, but most importantly what Lawson has in abundance, in common with many smaller players who do well in the game, is heaps of attitude.

Attempting to explain what motivates the little man, one of his coaches just grabbed that part of his jersey that sits over his heart, and said: "He's got masses of this." Certainly Lawson refuses to see his shortage of height as any impediment to success: "I can't afford to look upon it as a problem or a disadvantage. I just have to do what I am good at. If I'm not able to make yards the hard way, then I'll just have to make them some other way.

"Anyway, if I stand next to Bevy [Graeme Beveridge] during the national anthem, I'll be okay!"

Lawson will be cheered on in Aberdeen by a considerable travelling support that will make the long trek from Biggar, where the hooker played scrum-half among the multitude of minis that the club has boasted for many seasons. He is a "country boy at heart", a farmer's son from just outside the Lanarkshire town, who grew up among a bizarre menagerie of animals that he refers to as "a crazy sort of petting zoo" and that include two ostriches. He loves to return home, and can be found at the club helping out with the under-18s, whenever he has a minute to spare.

Biggar were founded in 1975, and while the club have produced some superb players, with Ally Warnock, Darren Burns and Lindsay Graham coming to mind, Lawson will be the first one to have risen all the way into Scotland colours, something that has not gone unnoticed, according to their favourite son.

"I am proud to come from Biggar, and I think that Biggar is proud that I've been given a big chance on Tuesday. There is quite a buzz about the club right now."

Lawson played at the Greenyards for one season, but came to prominence in the season past, his first as full-time professional, by keeping Scotland skipper and Lions tourist Gordon Bulloch on the Glasgow bench purely on merit. He reckons that he and Bulloch have shared exactly the starting spot for the Warriors, and it is clear that his emergence to fill Bulloch's boots is in no small part thanks to the rivalry between them.

"I get on great with Gordon," he says. "Mark Bitcombe [Glasgow's conditioning coach] has us training together in special weight-lifting groups, where we train with our rivals. Gordon is obviously more experienced than me and a little ahead of me in strength, but we're not so dissimilar, to be fair.

"Having the Scotland skipper to aim at is a good benchmark for me to aim at. We really push each other on at training."

Bulloch's tour to New Zealand has opened the door to Lawson, and the 75-cap veteran might find it difficult to slam it shut again once the little man gets a sniff of the big time.

Indeed Lawson's excellence as much as anything else explains why Glasgow can afford to see someone of Bulloch's experience leave the club after ten years to join Gavin Kerr in the Leeds Tykes' front row. There is no hiding place in the Guinness Championship (as it now is) and it will be interesting to see if Leeds coach Phil Davies can get the best out of the returning Lion once he is removed from his Glasgow comfort zone.

Given his physical disadvantages, Lawson has to give his best every outing. He does not regard himself as the Glasgow No.1 because not only does he face a challenge from above, but from below: West of Scotland and Hawks young hooker Fergus Thomson has signed pro-forms with Glasgow, and he will ensure that Lawson needs to perform next season.

Neither should the twin challenge from Edinburgh be ignored in the form of Andrew Kelly and Dougie Hall, with the latter an even bet to start against Romania in Bucharest on June 5.

But it was Lawson who was recently selected by the Scottish Institute of Sport to join their ranks, and he reckons it was only his lack of inches that prevented them picking him up earlier in his career: "I wasn't expected to succeed." He is now.

This article was originally posted on 22-May-2005, 08:01 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 22-May-2005, 08:09.