YOU could forgive Kevin Bryce if he was a bit frustrated. The last 12 months have seen so many ups and downs in his life, alongside a radical change of career path, that he must be feeling a bit dizzy when he thinks about it.
A year ago, he got a shock call-up as a hooker to the Scotland World Cup squad, winning his third cap in Scotland's second game. A few weeks after the tournament, though, he was in hospital having a shoulder rebuilt.
Then another high as he changed club from Glasgow Warriors to Edinburgh and position from hooker to tighthead prop, quickly followed by a series of niggles with his back and knee that set back his transformation – the most recent coming at the weekend.
"Unfortunately I have had a couple of setbacks preseason," he admitted. "Now it is just a case of building up the level of fitness that I lost. Obviously I am going to say 'I want to play right now', as any professional would, but I think in reality I still have a few little things to learn and I need to get my fitness back. I will take it as it comes."
Still when he does pack down for Edinburgh, it will complete a remarkable transformation form a Scotland Under 20 flanker to a World Cup hooker to a tighthead stalwart. With his 28th birthday tomorrow, he might be seen as a bit old for yet another change in career, but he knows he has years to get it right.
One reason for that, is it is exactly what his father, Jocky, did when he was playing for Heriot's and winning a Scotland A cap. "He says he just turned up for one game and they said, 'Jocky, have you ever played prop?'. He said no, and they said, 'Well, you're in'. And that was him, he never looked back. I hope I will be doing the same, he had a good career there," Kevin Bryce recalled. His father was nearly 40 when he eventually hung up his boots and turned to coaching.
Above all though, there is one thing that sold the move – first suggested by Vern Cotter, the Scotland coach at the end of the World Cup – to young Bryce. "Confrontation," he said. "In the front row you need to love it and I do. I am enjoying it, it is something you and a good challenge."
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