IT is called hubris, traditionally exemplified by the tale of Icarus flying too close to the sun and crashing to his doom when his wings melted.
Stuart Hogg has had his taste of it but it says a lot about his character that, unlike the legendary high flyer, he pulled himself out of his dive to oblivion, learned his lessons and is ready to take his place back among the soarers.
For the Glasgow Warriors and Scotland full-back, the last year has been more of a mental battle than a physical one, though as he observes wryly, at a club with the kind of team spirit Glasgow possess, he could always rely on his team-mates to make sure his feet remained firmly planted in reality.
Still, a sending-off, rival clubs touting for his services and destabilising his relations back in Glasgow as a result, plus a catastrophic loss of form which meant he could only watch during the final weeks of last season when his team were smashing their way to the PRO12 final without him, was enough for him to need to take a long, hard look at himself.
Roll the action forward six months and not only is he back on form but he is relaxed, happy and settled, having recently signed a two-year extension to his contract, binding him to Glasgow until 2017, and he could not be in a better place mentally and physically, he says.
"I am delighted to stay," was his verdict. "Obviously things were not going my way and I got a bit disappointed. You always learn from your mistakes both on and off the field. You have to learn and move forward. The way I have started this season is the way I want to continue. I feel I have been playing relatively well and want to be the best rugby player I can be. Glasgow have the right players and coaches to help me on my way.
"Me and the rest of the boys - everybody here at Glasgow - firmly believe that, if we keep working hard on and off the field, a trophy is just round the corner, but we have to work incredibly hard along the way. I want to be a player, and the rest of the team want to be players, that win a trophy. We are in a position to do that.
"We want to be the first team, the first Scottish team, to win titles. The good thing is that we have a fantastic squad here at Glasgow that is pushing each other for places; the standard in training is massively high. Come the weekend, if you get that jersey it is all about going out there, expressing yourself and putting in a performance that you deserve. You have worked hard for that jersey so you have to work hard on the pitch and show you are worthy of that jersey."
Which is why he is looking forward to tomorrow so much. Toulouse have resources that most clubs can only dream of, have won the top European trophy four times and beat Glasgow last weekend, but Hogg is adamant that his team are more than capable of reversing that setback; he may be more grounded on a personal level but his ambition for the club is still stratospheric.
"I actually believe we won the bit of the game when we had 15 men on the pitch," he pointed out. "We were bitterly disappointed, though. We pride ourselves on being a well-disciplined team and to give away 14 penalties and two yellow cards is bitterly disappointing.
"We firmly believe if we stick to our game plan, we can go out there and win. It is not just going to happen, we have to make it happen and it is going to take a massive performance from us.
"We have had two wins in our first three games and had a little blip at the weekend. We have a good opportunity this weekend to go out there and put ourselves back into contention. We want to be the first Scottish team to win a trophy and what better trophy to win than the European Champions Cup?"
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