Scott Gray deserves a break and he will get one this weekend. On Wednesday Scotland's coach, Frank Hadden, confirmed Gray would play at openside flanker against England tomorrow. It will be his first start for the national side since November 2004 and only his second overall. In the intervening four years and five months Gray has experienced some serious low points as a professional. Worst was the phone conversation he had with his agent in the summer of 2007.
He was playing for Borders at the time, having moved north from Bath to kick-start his international career. In 2007 Borders were disbanded and Gray found himself without a club. "When I spoke to my agent he said the only real opportunity he had for me was at Doncaster, down in National League One," he relates. "I still had another year on my contract with the SRFU and I was meant to be going to Glasgow but they didn't need me. That was a bitter pill to swallow."
He was a man used to making tough decisions. As an 18-year-old he decided to leave his life in Harare, Zimbabwe, to play rugby overseas. "Because rugby is seen as a tough sport, it appealed more to farmers than people in the cities in Zimbabwe," he explains, "so, with a lot of farmers leaving, it's fallen away. That was why I left – for the opportunity to play sport." He turned down a rugby scholarship at Stellenbosch University in South Africa because "playing South African schools quite a lot, and getting beaten regularly, I found them to be quite arrogant and I didn't want to go there. Also it wasn't a full scholarship and I couldn't speak Afrikaans."
Instead he searched for a club in Scotland where his father had been born. When he failed to find one he opted to move to Australia, where he wound up at the ACT Brumbies before deciding to switch codes and play rugby league for the Brisbane Broncos. Bath brought him to the Guinness Premiership in 2003.
Gray was 29 when his agent told him Doncaster were his only option. At that age, and with that offer, a lot of players would have given up on their hopes of a second shot at an international career, maybe even considered quitting the professional game altogether. Gray did not take long to jump at the chance.
"The first thing I asked was whether they were full-time, and they were, so I could keep training hard. The club was really ambitious, trying to lay the foundations to get up into the Premiership. And I really enjoyed the rugby. I found I took a lot more enjoyment in the game just because there was so little pressure compared to what I'd had before.
"You still want to win and it still meant a lot to me and the other guys I was training with. It's just there aren't as many other people interested in it. On the field you still play as hard as you can. But I could relax a bit more. And in the back of my mind the whole time was the hope that I could get back into the Premiership with Doncaster or hopefully play well enough to get picked up by a Premiership side."
Which is exactly what he did. He scored two tries against Northampton and was duly signed up by the Saints at the start of this season.
"Frank Hadden came down to Northampton to check on Euan Murray and Sean Lamont. We had a trial match that game and I played quite well, so I went up to him to remind him that I was still keen to be involved with Scotland." Hadden included him in the national squad last autumn and, six substitute appearances on, Gray, left, is back in the first XV. "It's been a hell of a journey and Frank has been vital in getting me through it."
He will have a chance to repay his coach's faith tomorrow. Hadden's contract is up for renewal next month and his future may well rest on his side's performance against England. But Scotland have not won at Twickenham since 1983. "That does not scare us at all," says Gray bluntly. And he does, after all, know a thing or two about taking last chances.
