TO describe Bellshill and Easterhouse as traditional rugby backwaters might lean towards overstatement of their exposure to the sport but they are, respectively, the birthplace and the home of the club at which Scotland's newest international player learned his trade.
Louis Senter, admittedly, grew up in Uddingston, which defies the norm in Lanarkshire by boasting a rugby club with a proud, if modest, history, but it was the wrong version for a boy raised in a household committed to the 13-man code.
It is no coincidence that when Senter reached school age the Easterhouse Panthers were formed and his involvement with the club is a huge source of personal pride.
"The Panthers started in 2001 and I was one of the first players," Senter said. "It is a massive part of my family's life because my dad Mark [who now coaches Scotland under-19s] and mum Susan pretty much ran the club. We lived in Uddingston but the club was set up in Easterhouse, I think partly because it was what was considered a bit of a deprived area.
"I think it has been a really good thing there. Quite a few of the lads have told me that if it wasn't for rugby league they don't know what they would be doing."
His parents got the best reward they could have hoped for last weekend when, aged just 20, Senter came off the bench at Workington to play a part in the 42-18 thrashing of Wales and, in the process, became the first player to have represented Scotland at every level.
"I didn't know at the time that I was the first to play at every level but it was great when Steve [McCormack, Scotland head coach] told me," said Senter. "It was maybe a bit easier for me because we had a comfortable lead, so the nerves were fine. I just wanted as many touches as I could on Friday to show what I could do."
Senter's career followed what is becoming a well-worn path for promising young Scots when he headed, a couple of years ago, to the rugby academy at Hull Kingston Rovers, a connection established because the Yorkshire city remains the home of the former Scotland manager George Fairbairn, who is one of the greatest players in the club's history.
Since then the youngster has joined Halifax and has scored 18 tries in a dozen appearances for their reserve team this season. He drew confidence in making the step up to the senior Scotland team from the performance of David Scott, a former Panthers team-mate who seized his chance to play international rugby last year when he played in a World Cup quarter-final against New Zealand.
"David went down [to Hull] the year before me and did really well," said Senter. "He came to the Panthers when he was 15 and we played under-16s and under-18s together so, coming from the same team, I've seen how hard he's worked. A lot of the younger players at the club look up to him, including me, and it was great that he did as well as he did at the World Cup."
That was a campaign which helped grow awareness of the sport. "When you tell people you play rugby they are starting to ask whether it's league or union," Senter said. "I think awareness has picked up a bit since the World Cup and there's definitely a feeling that a few more want to play. As a homegrown player David is clearly a bit of a role model in that regard, too."
All of which makes it even more disturbing that, at a time when the Scottish government is trumpeting its investment in sport through the proceeds of crime, there is a serious threat to the existence of Panthers, because the England-based Rugby Football League feel unable to continue to fund development programmes. "A lot of teams are now struggling around Scotland because the Rugby League pulled the funding," Senter acknowledged.
As players, all the Scots can do is continue to demonstrate why it is important that they play their part in demonstrating why investment in sport should be as wide as possible, rather than focused on a chosen few by populist politicians, by continuing to represent Scotland as impressively as they have of late.
Injury and suspension having denied them the services of many of the outstanding figures in last year's World Cup campaign, their win over Wales has given them a real chance of earning a place in the Four Nations Championship with Australia, England and New Zealand in two years time' by winning this European Championship.
Today's visit to Ireland has grown in significance in that context after their shock win last weekend over tournament favourites France, who come to Galashiels next Friday. "I think we've picked up where we left off last week," Senter said. "There's a real enthusiasm about the squad and it would be great to set up a chance to win the title on home soil."
No matter what happens they will have a chance of winning the title when they mark the 20th anniversary of Scotland's first international rugby league match at Netherdale next week, but they will be favourites to do so if they can win in Dublin this afternoon.
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