COULD the gods have relented in their vendetta against Tim Swinson?
At long last it seems something has landed his way after a period where he kept getting injured at all the wrong times to allow other players to leapfrog him into the international limelight.
Now it is his turn to get a lucky break thanks to another's misfortune and he is determined to bust a gut to make sure he gets into the squad to face Italy and unlike last year, when bad luck again conspired against him, to make sure he gets some game time.
Last year's match in Italy - Scotland's dramatic last-gasp win thanks to Duncan Weir's drop goal - pretty much summed up the way misfortune has dogged his international footsteps. He was on the bench and ready to come on but in the final quarter both Ryan Wilson and Richie Gray were struggling. The coaches did not want to gamble on putting him on for one only for the other to break down, so they held back . . . and held back . . . and held back. The end of the game arrived and there was Swinson, ready willing and able but still on the touchline.
"I can understand why it happens but it does not make it any easier to deal with after the game," he said ruefully. "It was not ideal but it is what is best for the team. I sat on the touch line and didn't get on. It was one of the most depressing feelings."
So having missed out on one cap because he needed to cover two positions and ended out covering neither, he was all set to play a full role in the November games. Except that he went on to break down with a back spasm in the captain's run before Scotland faced New Zealand in the Autumn. It was the fourth time he has been picked for a November test but failed to make it on to the pitch - the only Autumn game he has ever made was his first against Japan.
That fixture safely out of the way, he enjoyed a run of games over Christmas and into the new years, only to pull a calf muscle playing for Glasgow Warriors against Montpellier four days before the RBS Six Nations Championship squad was announced. It meant that after being a certainty for a place he instead missed out.
"Injuries happens in rugby, it is part of life and if you get focus on the negative stuff you get dragged down into a negative spiral," he said. "I had that a little bit when the Scotland squad for the Six Nations was announced and I was injured.
"I was just running away from the line-out and got a stabbing pain in my leg. It was all about rehabbing again and it was brutal. I was a bit depressed but focused on my rehab, focused on my training. I wanted to get back playing again which I did at the weekend for Glasgow.
"It is never good seeing a great player like Richie [Gray] go down but when it happened it [a call up] was at the back of my mind. Al Kellock mentioned it and I got a call from Gav Scott on the Monday morning to tell me I would be involved and training for the next couple of weeks."
In the end the timing could not have been better. Swinson made his try-scoring return to action in the Glasgow match in Italy that kicked off at lunchtime on Sunday. Two hours later, Scotland started their game against Wales and mid way through the second half, Gray pulled up with the torn arm tendon that certainly ends his Six Nations and may end his season.
It does give him the chance to bury one memory - the last of his nine caps came in June against South Africa, when a weakened team exhausted by too much travel across three continents collapsed to a 55-6 defeat. "It was a tough tour," he recalled. "The amount of travelling between the Argentina and South Africa leg it was always going to be a tough game. After experience playing them the year before with my first cap it was just as aggressive and as physical as I remember."
Having been involved with Scotland before the November Tests and during that summer tour, Swinson reckons he has a head start on the style being brought in, though he is warning people not to underestimate the threat posed by Italy when they arrive at B T Murrayfield at the end of next week.
"Italy are a top side, in the top six of the Northern Hemisphere, which is why they play in this tournament," he said. "There is never an easy week in the Six Nations. You always have to focus and we will be performing as best we can to get the victory. I played against Italy against South Africa for my second cap and sat on the bench in the last Six Nations."
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