THE SUNDAY HERALD REPORTED RECENTLY

FROM Eric Liddell to Ugo Monye, rugby has never had much of a problem accommodating those whose faith in higher authorities might not stop with the local referees' society. But if piety has always had a place on the field of play, its natural home has rarely seemed to be the front row of the scrum, that charnel house of menace and malevolence where evil deeds are done.

Hence the sense of bewilderment generated by those whose particularly muscular form of Christianity finds expression in the grunts and groans of the set-piece. The most celebrated, of course, is Euan Murray, the Scotland and Northampton prop who has recently returned to action after a lengthy injury absence, but Glasgow Hawks captain Nick Cox is another who is cut from the same cloth.

The pun is very much intended. In a few months, Cox will be pulling on the vestments of a fully-ordained minister of the Scottish Episcopal Church, having completed an apprenticeship that included studying for his theology degree and serving as an assistant pastor at St Silas, an evangelical fellowship in the West End of Glasgow.

Quoting John 10:10, the St Silas website says their aim is to help people "live life in all its fullness". And in Cox, they have certainly found someone who has done just that - someone, moreover, whose journey through youthful promise, waywardness, despair and redemption would make a decent sermon in itself.

Cox is more than just a decent player.

He was good enough to play for England at age-group levels, good enough to captain their under-19 side and good enough to be signed by Gloucester while just 18. Then, though, things began to go wrong, as the naive, privately-educated Cox was pitched into the roughhouse of West Country rugby, with its live hard, play hard and (especially) drink hard culture.

Troubled by injuries, he played only a handful of first-team games for Gloucester before being released after two seasons. His next stop was Coventry - he had been raised in nearby Kenilworth - where his attempt to restart his career went well until a wrist injury dashed his ambition of playing in the under-21 World Cup. At which point, as he admits, he went off the rails.

"When I became a professional I was suddenly pitched into this men's world of heavy drinking, something I had never been exposed to before, " he says.

"I was doing stuff that I hadn't been able to do when I was at school. When I got my injury I got very drunk and had a run-in with the law."

It was a minor scrape - "I suppose a lot of guys go through things like that" - but it led, with the support of some family members, to his first visit to a church. His initial, tentative curiosity took him, over the weeks ahead, through a period of exploration. And then the switch was flicked.

"Yes, I definitely had that moment, " he says. "I can remember it precisely.

It was a Thursday morning, a glorious, sunny day, and I was sitting outside the church reading the bible as there was a funeral going on inside. It was as if a light came on in my head."

It guided him, improbably enough, to Glasgow. Cox began his theological studies at the city's International Christian College, joined the congregation at St Silas and, just to keep his hand in, signed up with Glasgow Hawks as well.

The Hawks have a habit of being a magnet for talent coming into the city, and the 19st Cox, with a few years of professional rugby already under his belt, was welcomed with open arms.

Rugby may not be the most important thing in his life any more - Sunday being a busy day in his line of work, he will miss today's match against Melrose for instance - but he can still put himself about a bit on the pitch.

In every sense. Wherein lies the rub and the paradox of his curious double life. Just how does he resolve the apparent disconnect between preaching and living by the gospel of righteousness and his Saturday excursions into knocking 10 bells out of his opponents?

"I honestly see no tension, " he says.

"Rugby is a contact sport, not a violent sport. Yes, sometimes contact spills over into occasional acts of violence, but it's not a street brawl."

Cox explains that his most difficult period of introspection was provoked by the Bloodgate scandal that erupted this year. As dramatic as that was, he could see no moral difference between that episode and such everyday acts of mischief as faking injuries to give your side a rest.

He says: "I've done it myself. I had never really thought much about that, but after Bloodgate I started to worry about it.

Now, I wouldn't do it and I would never ask one of my players to do it either.

"I don't want to paint the picture of myself as an angel. I'm not, I'm a work in progress. Any Christian in any area would say the same thing. It's a misunderstanding of Christianity that everyone is perfect; it's actually a recognition of the fact that we're not perfect and we need God to do something for us."

After his ordainment next summer, Cox is likely to be looking for a parish somewhere in Scotland. And if there's a rugby club nearby that happens to be looking for a top-notch prop then he might just be the answer to their prayers.

This article was originally posted on 16-Dec-2009, 08:20 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 16-Dec-2009, 08:24.