IT is amazing what a difference a few months makes.
In the spring, Stuart Hogg was an emotional mess; mentally reeling from being sent off in an international where his team went on to concede 50 points and unsettled by interest from other clubs after his selection for the British and Irish Lions the summer before. Now, not only has he just come off his best campaign in a Scotland shirt, but he has also pledged his future to Glasgow Warriors until 2017.
It is a far cry from the spring when reports in Ireland linked him with an imminent move to Ulster while Saracens and a couple of French clubs were also said to have tried to entice him away. With all that turmoil, his form dipped and he played only once during the end-of-season campaign and was not even in the 23 for either of Glasgow's PRO12 play-off matches.
The key, admitted Gregor Townsend, the Glasgow head coach as he celebrated getting the player's signature on a new contract, had been to go outside the club to bring in mentoring and advice. "We helped bring in different people to support him - he has responded really well to that," said Townsend. "We really support him, we want the best out of him but Stuart has driven most of this himself to be the player he can be.
"At the end of last season, things were not as rosy with Stuart but the time away in the summer playing for Scotland on tour and in the Commonwealth Games has put things in perspective and he is 100 per cent committed. He has been full of enthusiasm, worked really hard and enjoyed being here. He has said he did not want to leave and that has been the basis of our negotiations."
The transformation may also have been helped by Townsend himself having a handle on what the player was going through. "Being on a Lions tour as well, I have experience of that," Townsend said. "The season after my Lions tour was the worst of my professional career. Lots of things go on, suddenly there is interest from other clubs and distractions.
"There has been a lot of maturing from Stuart, he has been fantastic. I think very highly of what he has brought to the team and what he does off the field for the club."
Townsend has also secured the services of Lee Jones, another player who, for different reasons, had an unsettled spring. In Jones' case the issues arose after he was axed by Edinburgh but taken on loan by Glasgow when they were struggling for wings. "It is good to have secured my future," he said. "I always felt I was good enough to stay in the game but at the time was wondering if it might not be right to stay in Scotland.
"I am glad it was worked out and I am signing for Glasgow. I worked with Gregor [Townsend] when I was playing for Scotland in 2012 and he was backs coach, so he obviously has some faith in my ability."
They are also celebrating getting the services of a few players over at Edinburgh, though in their case it is more a sign that the injury crisis is beginning to ease. Alan Solomons, the head coach, estimates they had 24 players unavailable at one stage but some came back last week and he is hoping more are on the way.
"We needed a break, the players had played nine games at that point plus two friendlies against English Premiership teams, so that is a lot of rugby," he said. "Hopefully our guys will start filtering in and we can hope for a run of games with most of our players available."
Typical of the change is Roddy Grant, the flanker who has surprised even himself with how quickly he has recovered from breaking cheek bone as part of the carnage against Lyon. "It has been frustrating," he said. "A few circumstances allowed it to be earlier than expected, it was an added bonus. I only missed one game.
"I have never seen anything like that game, unbelievable. I have never seen or been involved in game like it - for no rhyme or reason. It was just a succession of freak incidents."
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 hereComments are closed on this article