YOU are going to read a lot in the next few months about the problems created by the funding gap between the Guinness PRO12 teams and their rivals in the English and French leagues, but according to one of Glasgow Warriors’ newest and best-travelled recruits, there is a secret weapon that will help the Scots keep pace.
Corey Flynn arrived in the city via a high-profile – if injury-ridden – career in New Zealand, which included two Super 15 titles from his 150 games in Crusaders colours, followed by a spell in Toulouse, which gave him his first taste of Glasgow when the teams met in the European Champions Cup.
In New Zealand, they are used to the player drain that comes from being outspent by European teams, and yet the culture of success continues unabated – this weekend three out of the four Super Rugby semi-finalists are Kiwi sides. So it can be done, and Flynn sees similarities between the culture he left in his homeland and the one he has joined in Scotland.
“There’s big desire, high work-rate, everyone’s working for each other,” he said. “Everybody has got a bit of a voice. It’s an all-inclusive sort of environment. What we’re brought up on [in New Zealand] is the culture of a group.
“I knew after my two years in France that this is how I wanted to finish my playing career. I didn’t want to be banging my head against a wall, I wanted to know the direction I wanted to go in and that allowed me to make my decision. It was a big attraction for me.”
At 35, Flynn knows time is running out on his playing days, though he notes that all those injuries that were such a blight on his career in his 20s now help to keep him going since he has fewer miles on the clock than most players his age.
For all that, with two rival hookers capped by Scotland within the last year as rivals in the squad, he knows competition is going to be fierce. It may be his influence in helping the next generation, such as James Malcolm, that turns out to be his biggest contribution.
“It’s definitely a shock to the system after a couple of years in France but it’s very similar to back in New Zealand so we’re adapting pretty well,” he said. “At the moment I want to play. In terms of coaching afterwards, it is something that spins my wheels but where I come from, there was always the mentality of ‘leave the jersey in a better position when you go’.
“So we’re competing for starting spots and playing time, but you want the person that’s there to do the best job possible for the team. You’re not there to try to hinder him; you want him to be able to perform and in turn that will make me perform better as well.”
Flynn was anxious to get his a nine-year-old daughter and seven- year-old son into an English- speaking education system, and coming from the southern tip of New Zealand, the Scottish weather was not an issue.
That meant he was open to offers when Glasgow came calling, but what really swayed him was the experience of playing at Scotstoun a couple of seasons ago.
“It’s a team that’s moving forward to a common goal. Everyone buys into it, everyone wants to be a part of something special,” he said. “In France, they wanted to win, of course, because they’re Toulouse, the most successful team in Europe, but they wanted to win the French way.”it’s the beautiful game. If you try and pull everybody in, there’s no real cohesion it’s just, ‘go and play’.”
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