THAT was some welcome. Mark Bennett spent the summer in the wide open spaces you get on a sevens field, culminating in the silver medal-winning performance in the Olympics. Then, his first taste of the day job back in 15s was running slap-bang into the large and imposing form of Nick Williams, the 19-stone back row, in Cardiff.
"I got skelped a couple of times – Nick Williams got me once," he recalled ruefully. "I ran an inside line, caught the ball, and was coming at him at some pace. Then I looked up and saw who it was and thought, 'Here we go'. There was no space."
It was a short, sharp, and probably quite painful, reminder of what 15-a-side rugby is all about, where space is at a premium and large, aggressive forwards are always ready to mug any member of the back division who dares venture too close. A radically different world to the way he spent his summer.
For all that, Bennett is convinced that his Olympic experience has allowed him to come back to the Glasgow Warriors a better player than he left with skills honed while speed and power both benefitted from several months of specialist training.
"It was a great summer," he said. "Sevens really sharpens you up skill-wise and fitness-wise. I feel like I’m in a good place. I got back into training two weeks ago and it’s gone well, so I’m just looking forward to hitting the ground running.
"Sevens is a real test of your skills at the top level, there’s no hiding place – which means everything had to be on point, and I just feel good coming back in.
"Everyone keeps asking me how it has been adapting coming back from sevens to 15s, and I tell them that it’s a hell of a lot easier going that way than the other way. I feel a lot more comfortable defensively because there’s not as much space – it’s nice having only five yards to deal with rather than 25."
Bennett was given a few well-deserved weeks off after a non-stop period that started with the pre-World Cup training camp in France 15 months ago, continued through the tournament, where he finished on the shortlist for the World Rugby Breakthrough Player of the Year, and ended with his silver medal in Rio de Janeiro.
"I needed a break," he admitted. "It’s been pretty full-on. It was a long year so the time away has done me the world of good. Now I’m back in and raring to go. It’s the first break of more than a week I’ve had in more than a year. I did nothing for two weeks – it was great. My body wasn’t thanking me for it first week back but I’m back going now."
It looks likely that after getting a run from the bench in Cardiff last week, he will get a starting spot against Ulster this week, aiming to bring that silver lining to his home club. After all, as Bennett observed, the medal was anything but a certainty when Team GB put together the side that took to the field in Rio.
"It was unexpected, if we’re being honest. We threw a team together 10 weeks before the tournament, so realistically we probably shouldn’t have been able to get anywhere close to where we did," he said.
"It was a squad of talented boys, and everyone clicked at the right moment. It was a one-off tournament, it wasn’t like the World Series when you need to be doing it on a regular basis, it was a case of saying, 'This is when it is, this is when we need to peak' – and we did.
"In the build-up tournaments we were scoring tries for fun, we were tearing teams apart, but we were also conceding a few tries. When we turned up in Rio it was the complete opposite – the defence won us that medal, 100 per cent. We couldn’t score tries like that against the better defences, but we were scoring enough because our defence was so good."
Add the whole Olympic experience and it has been a magical year for Bennett. Yet, as Williams so bluntly made clear, now it is back to the day job, and the challenge of bringing all that confidence to bear in the bread and butter of the Glasgow Warriors.
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