PLAYING in the back row can feel like banging your head against a brick wall at the best of times, but for John Barclay, at least in one sense, the experience must have felt especially futile and unrewarding over the past year or two. No matter how well he played for the Scarlets, no matter how vocal the praise from Welsh observers, the response from the Scotland camp was the same: an all-but-unexplained refusal to call him up for international duty.

The arrival of Hugh Blake from New Zealand at the start of the year was read as another indication that Barclay, first capped at the 2007 World Cup but omitted from the last two Six Nations squads, was more out of favour than ever. The more recent arrival of John Hardie, also a New Zealander, has only heightened the competition for the No 7 jersey.

And yet, at least for now, Barclay is back in the running. He came off the bench against Ireland a fortnight ago, and will start against Italy tomorrow. With the final squad of 31 due to be announced next week after the players themselves learn their fate on Sunday, he knows he may soon become known as the guy who came in from the cold and was quickly returned to the deep freeze, but for the time being he is in there fighting.

If at first he was frustrated by his omission, first from Scott Johnson’s squads and then from Vern Cotter’s, he subsequently learned to become philosophical about it. He knew that all he could do was play to the best of his ability, and accepted that he might not get a chance to add to his 43 caps.

“I was really enjoying my rugby where I was and felt I was playing well,” Barclay said yesterday. “So I think over the year I realised you can only do what you can do and if you don’t get picked you don’t get picked.

“It took me a while to realise that. As the months wore on I accepted that I can just do what I can do. I guess it worked in the end.

“After the Six Nations I thought that might have been it, but then Vern phoned me and said ‘Look, keep your head down, you’re doing some good stuff, we’re just looking at a couple of different players’.

“He gave me a couple of bits and bobs that he thought would give me an advantage and strengthen my game. I took that away and worked with the coaches down at Scarlets, and I felt I put in some good performances in the last six months of the season.

“I was very happy playing rugby, very happy where I am, and playing good stuff. On one hand that’s frustrating that you think you’re playing quite well and not getting picked. On the other hand you can only control what you can do.”

Barclay played No 8 for the Scarlets last season as well as 7, a fact Cotter referred to when he explained why he had decided it was time to recall the 28-year-old. “There were certain parts of his game that we liked and there were other parts that we wanted him to develop,” the head coach said. “And after discussing things with him and the Scarlets we felt that he was playing in two positions and that he was getting his hands on the ball more often - and not just being a defensive player but adding something to attack.”

Barclay will not be the only one who might play exceptionally well against the Italians yet miss the cut, but he is mature enough to know there is no point fretting about that possibility now, or agonising about it should it happen. “I'm not saying I won't be disappointed,” he continued. “Of course I'll be really disappointed if I don't get picked, but if I play as well as I can and I still don't get picked what can I do?

“I can't change that. I have enough understanding now to know that if you put your best foot forward and you still don't get picked then that’s out of your control.”

Barclay knows from friends how bad it feels to be chopped from a World Cup squad, and he had an unhappy time himself at the last tournament, as Scotland failed for the first time to make it beyond the group stage. Little wonder, then, that he wants first, to be involved again, and then, to help steer Scotland out of the pool and into the knockout phase of the competition.

Graeme Morrison, my best mate, missed out [in 2007],” he recalled. “Johnnie Beattie missed out four years ago and they were gutted.

“Johnnie never got a chance to play in the World Cup and he was gutted. I spoke to Graeme afterwards and he was devastated. Everyone wants to play in a World Cup.

“I'm lucky I've had the chance to go to two, but I definitely feel like I have a lot to offer. I have some unfinished business: the last World Cup was one of the most disappointing experiences of my life.”