Lewis Tierney has confirmed that he is hoping to follow his famous father into international rugby this autumn, but, as was revealed in HeraldSport, the Wigan Warriors youngster will be donning the thistle of Scotland, not the white shirt of England.
Jason Robinson won a total of 75 caps for England and Britain in an illustrious dual-code career and his son Tierney is now embarking on his own journey with a call-up by Scotland RL.
Tierney attended the initial players' meeting last week as Scotland prepare for the Four Nations tournament this autumn against England, Australia and New Zealand.
“It was interesting to look at the plans and see it all set out in stone,” says Tierney, 21, who has become a regular for Wigan this season. “It was great to see what’s going on, the facilities we are going to be using, the camp we will be based at, the schedule etc. It’s pretty exciting.”
Tierney qualifies for Scotland as Robinson’s mum, Dorothy, was born in Glasgow and grew up in Kirkintilloch, East Dunbartonshire, before moving to Leeds.
“Grandma Dot lives near Hunslet in south Leeds but she is proper Scottish - she’s not lost her accent at all!” he said.
“I’ve always known my heritage and where my family are from. If I was going to play international rugby it was always either going to be Scotland or England. It was an easy decision. When Steve McCormack (Scotland's head coach) said I had a chance of making the squad and getting on the camps, I was chuffed. It’s a big thing for me.”
Despite making a try-scoring debut as an 18-year-old in a remarkable 33-32 at Widnes three years ago, Tierney has had to be patient.
He spent a season playing Championship rugby league for Workington, where he hopes to return with Scotland to face New Zealand on 11 November, but has been ‘next man up’ for Wigan this season, providing cover at full-back and wing.
Whenever any of Wigan’s star backs are absent, Tierney has filled in admirably, so much so that he signed a new three-year contract last month. He started the season at full-back while Sam Tomkins was injured and has replaced Josh Charnley and Dominic Manfredi on the flanks for Shaun Wane’s title-chasers.
“Going to Workington helped me massively,” he admitted.
“It was hard to see the future and what would come of it but that time up there definitely played a key part in me playing 17 times already this season for Wigan. It was a real eye-opener, playing against men.
"That was a big step for me after Academy rugby and gave me a big boost mentally and physically that I could handle it. I’ve moved about this season from full-back to wing and I think that’s good for me as I enjoy both. I don’t know which I’m best at yet - I don’t really mind where I play as long as I play.”
Tierney was left out of Friday’s night’s hammering of Wakefield in Super League but played in last weekend’s epic Challenge Cup semi-final defeat to Hull.
“Everyone was angry and a bit upset. It’s been hard to get over as winning the Challenge Cup was one of our main goals. But top teams have got to let disappointment like that go and we needed to take our anger and frustration into the Wakefield match and put right what we were lacking against Hull.
"We think we’ve got a good chance of sealing the League Leaders Shield and winning the Grand Final so that’s our focus now.”
Tierney hopes to play sufficient a role in Wigan’s run-in to secure a place in the Scotland squad that will be confirmed in October. He has stiff competition from Warrington's Matthew Russell, Euan Aitken of St George-Illawarra Dragons, Bradford's Oscar Thomas and David Scott of Batley.
“Looking around you realise there’s a lot of talent there so I’ve got to concentrate to the end of the season to get my place,” he admits.
“Steve said it’s the best bunch of players he’s ever had in a Scotland squad. It’s going to be tough to get in. But I’m looking forward to working with Steve.
"He’s never coached me before as I was with the first team by the time he came to Wigan but I’ve heard a lot about him and know that he’s very respected at Wigan as a really good coach.”
The Tierney household is in for an exciting autumn. Step-father Paul is also making the step up to the elite level in his field: football refereeing.
“He’s just signed a Premier League contract for the first time so he will be reffing in that most weeks,” explains Lewis.
“He did quite a few Premier League games last season but he has gone full-time now. I don’t get to see many of his games as we are always playing but I do see him on the telly. He's done really well.”
Tickets for Scotland’s Four Nations games are on sale now at rugbyleaguetickets.co.uk or on?0844 856 1113.
Scotland’s 2016 Four Nations schedule:
Friday October 28 (8pm): Australia v Scotland, KC Lightstream Stadium, Hull
Saturday November 5 (5.30pm): England v Scotland, Ricoh Arena, Coventry
Friday November 11 (8pm): New Zealand v Scotland, Zebra Claims Stadium, Workington
Sunday November 20 (2.30pm): Final, Anfield, Liverpool
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