Scotland prop Ali Dickinson has finally accepted the inevitable in retiring from playing the game as a result of repeated and protracted injury problems.
With his 35th birthday fast approaching and more than two years after he had played his last Test match - having established himself as Scotland’s first choice loosehead at that point - a major shoulder injury sparked his troubles, minimising his on-field involvement with Edinburgh over the past two seasons.
The amount of time he was given to try to recover demonstrated his value to both his club and the international squad and his persistence in seeking to do so illustrated the attitude that was evident in the way he forced his way into the national squad, then established himself as a respected performer at the highest level.
Like fellow Dundee HSFP product Tom Smith he had initially been seen as a relative lightweight as an elite level front-row forward when he first emerged and was initially an impact replacement, winning nine of his first 10 caps off the bench. However he worked hard to bulk up on his technique and went on to start all bar four of his last 24 Tests in accruing 58 caps in all, latterly forming part of a powerful unit alongside Edinburgh club-mates Ross Ford and Willem Nel.
In the course of that career Dickinson featured in three World Cup campaigns, in 2007 in France where he made his Test debut against the All Blacks, in New Zealand in 2011 and in 2015 in England, where he had already spent much of his club career, playing for Gloucester and Sale Sharks between 2007 and 2013.
“It’s obviously been a tough decision but when you’re getting a bit older, your body makes the decision for you,” he admitted yesterday.
“For me, my body just couldn’t keep up with the demands of the professional game and I believe it’s now a good time to call it a day.
“There has been loads of good memories along the way but it’s not just the games, there’s great pre-seasons, training and socials with the squad. I’ll definitely miss those moments with my team-mates.”
Dickinson’s knowhow will continue to be put to use as he takes on a coaching role with the Fosroc Scottish Rugby Academy, specialising in the scrum and contact area.
“I’ve been really fortunate to have been offered this role to help develop the youngsters coming through, from school-age, into the academy and hopefully into the pro teams,” he said, having started his own professional career as an apprentice with Edinburgh 14 years ago.
“It’ll certainly challenge me as being a player is completely different from being a coach. I can’t wait to get started and it’s definitely going to be a great test of my character. To take up a position with the Fosroc Academy is a great opportunity for me.”
His recruitment was welcomed by Scottish Rugby Head of Academies, Sean Lineen, who indicated that his expertise has the potential to accelerate the development of up and coming youngsters.
“I’m delighted to have Dicko on board,” said Lineen.
“He’s a recently-retired, quality international rugby player, someone that our younger players will know and respect and to whom he can lend all his knowledge and experience learned in 14 years at the top of the game.
“He’s an academy coach but there is also the chance work on his specialist areas of scrum and contact more widely, where his experience is up to date and can be applied across all our academies and national age-grade teams. He’s a very welcome addition."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here