Back in the big time

Rugby reporter

Sunday 2 September 2012

Almost 15 years have gone by since a 19-year-old rookie by the name of Gordon Ross cemented his place in the affections of Edinburgh fans with a last-minute dropped goal that gave the side an improbable 27-25 European Challenge Cup victory over Biarritz in the Parc des Sports Aguilera.

Gordon Ross is just thinking of one season at a time Photograph: Getty

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Alasdair Reid

The moment has long since passed into legend. And if things had followed their normal course then Ross might have done likewise, hanging up his boots after a distinguished and peripatetic career that had seen him win 25 caps for Scotland and play top-flight rugby for Leeds, Castres and Saracens after taking his leave of Edinburgh more than a decade ago.

Indeed, when Ross signed on with London Welsh in 2009, he was so far into the evening of his career that the smell of bedtime cocoa had been filling his nostrils for a couple of seasons already. To all intents and purposes, he was an old stager seeing out his days at a club whose glories were all of the former variety. Padding out his personal pension pot seemed a more pressing consideration than any sporting concerns at that point.And yet something was stirring at Old Deer Park. Far from coasting towards the rugby rest home, Ross became a central figure in London Welsh's drive back to the highest level. The club, renowned for producing more Lions players than any other side in Britain or Ireland, had ambitions to get into the Aviva Premiership, and those plans came to glorious fruition last season when they beat Cornish Pirates in the final of the second-tier Championship and won their place at rugby's top table.Which is why the 34-year-old fly-half will today be heading for the Kassam Stadium in Oxford, where London Welsh will now be playing their home games. After a couple of seasons touring some of the more improbable outposts of English rugby, Ross will be back in the playmaker slot – with Leicester, arguably the country's most illustrious club, firmly in his sights.Daunting? Not to a player with as many miles on the clock as Ross has accumulated over the past decade and-a-half in professional rugby. "I don't think the fact it's Leicester makes that much of a difference," he said. "Every team at this level is going to be physical and competitive, otherwise they wouldn't be in this league."Nor would London Welsh if some in English rugby had had their way. When they won the Championship final last season, their promotion path was initially blocked by RFU officials who argued that they were ineligible for the step up because they did not have primacy of tenure over the Oxford ground. However, a legal tribunal examined the case, considered the fact that a number of existing Premiership sides – notably Wasps, London Irish and Saracens – were in the same position, and ruled that London Welsh should indeed go up."It all happened around the end of June," Ross said. "It was a pretty exciting time. Most of the things I had heard suggested that we weren't going to win, but the longer it went on, with no news coming out, I began to think that if it was so straightforward we would've known by now. Then I started to get a few texts from people who picked things up off internet sites. "Eventually, the news came through officially. I was really quite emotional when I found out we had won. A few of us met up later that night and had a couple of beers to celebrate the achievement and everything we been done over the past few years. Part of the emotion was personal, knowing I would play in the Premiership again, but it was more because of all the hard work we had put in together over the season. There had been a lot of long trips to places where the facilities were not so great, but we had kept at it. We felt we deserved what we got."With promotion secured, the club could afford to strengthen the squad for the challenges they would soon face. It is a bitter irony of the professional game that the kind of players who will give their hearts and soul to getting a team up a division can quickly become surplus to requirements when a coach starts bolstering his squad.Ross might have feared the worst when head coach Lyn Jones signed Gavin Henson, formerly of Wales (and just about every reality TV show you might have heard of), as his frontline fly-half. However, Jones made it clear that Ross was still part of his plans. And just as well, too, for Henson suffered a triple fracture of his cheekbone in a warm-up game against the Scarlets last weekend, a turn of events that returned Ross to the centre of the stage.Henson will be out for at least six weeks, but if Ross can put in some decent displays then the Welshman may have to slot back in at centre when he returns. In other areas, the club have been more conservative in their recruitment, but Ross believes the team spirit is as good as anything he has ever experienced."The new faces have all fitted in very well," Ross said. "I've played for a few clubs in my time and I think this is one of the friendliest and most welcoming I've been at. But you still have to have an edge about you and, fortunately, most of the players have that too."There is a huge feeling of going into the unknown as a club and as a team. But we have recruited some good players, guys with experience, who have made a huge difference to the squad. They can help some of the younger guys to get through the first two or three games because it is a massive step from the Championship to the Premiership."Ross, inevitably, will be seen as one of those senior players. In another era, his all-round gifts – he has been a scratch golfer and was a useful enough footballer to earn a trial at Hearts – might have earned more recognition, but his goals are more modest now."I've reached the stage when I'm just thinking about one season at a time," he said. "If I can get through this one then let's see what happens. The goal for the club is to finish 11th or better to stay in the league. It would be fantastic if we could achieve just that."

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