LUCK is never far from a player's mind:

putting on a certain sock first; running on to the field first or last in line; or listening to a particular piece of music. Then there are the bogeys, things you don't or can't do - spot a magpie, spill salt, things like that. For Tim Swinson, it seems the big no-no is simply the month of November. All of it. For him, it is 30 days of being injury prone in a way that never happens the other 11 months.

"I have discovered that playing in November and the Autumn Tests does not seem to be my thing," he joked. "I have played one Test in two years and been injured for the other five. It is frustrating, but something you have to deal with."

His latest trip to the medical room is powerful evidence for the idea that there is some malevolent spirit that wakes from hibernation in the autumn specifically to cost Swinson caps. What else explains doing all the heavy lifting, pushing and crash-tackling and then popping your back out moving in a straight line?

"I was running and then hit the floor. I could not hold my weight on my back," he recalled. "I was pretty gutted as you can imagine, simply from being in [the squad] before the Test match and then not playing."

All that happened two days before he was due to face the All Blacks, having been named on the bench against the reigning world champions, which added an extra dimension to his frustration.

"Everyone wants to play for their country; once you have done that, everyone wants to play international rugby against the All Blacks," he said.

However, when he struggled even to stand after watching the match, even he had to admit he could never have played. "It was the right decision," he said.

The frustration cannot have been helped by watching Richie and Jonny Gray both put in stellar performances in their different ways, taking 100% of their own line- outs and pinching a couple on the opposition throw while chucking themselves around in the loose with an "anything-you-can-do" sibling rivalry driving them on.

But Swinson is having to get used to that kind of pressure for places, not just at international level but also at Glasgow where he has Jonny Gray, Al Kellock, Tom Ryder and Leone Nakarawa all competing with him for the two spots in the club second row. Although stepping down from the international limelight to face the Newport Gwent Dragons today, Swinson is still facing a highly competitive battle.

"I came close to playing against the All Blacks but unfortunately did not manage it. Now I am focusing on playing against the Dragons, playing for Glasgow," he said. "I want to play the best rugby I can; whether that is with Glasgow or Scotland does not really matter. If I am playing my best rugby for Glasgow, then I would hope to get a shot with Scotland as well.

"You can sit there and be depressed because Richie and Jonny [Gray] played very well and that makes my job a lot harder. At the same time I know my position, they played fantastically well - they played like the players they are - so I have to focus on what I can do: how I can play for Glasgow over this Christmas period and hopefully in the Six Nations next year. It is just focusing on my game. Somebody else will pick who will play, so I have to focus on myself rather than worry about how Jonny, Richie, Gilco [Grant Gilchrist], Al [Kellock], Jim [Hamilton] or any of them play.

"Training at Glasgow is fantastic; training with your mates and with fantastic players. I think at the last count we had 38 out of the 43 who are capped internationals for one country or another. It is hard to get into the Glasgow team, some joke it is harder than Scotland.

"You have most of the Scotland starting backline here and people pushing them every week. The same in the forwards: in my position we have five international second rows, all five of us are quality players, so it is tough to get in. To come back and train in a hard environment, whether it is Scotland or Glasgow, is fantastic and really makes it tough."

It is worth pointing out that the Dragons won the equivalent fixture last season, also played the week after the international window, so they are no easy-beats despite their lowly position in the Guinness PRO12. They were not seriously affected by losing players to the Wales game yesterday with only Toby Faletau involved, which adds to the danger, especially after Glasgow's no-show against the Scarlets last week.

"I came in at the start of the week, having not been involved down there, but at the forwards meeting we felt a bit let down by ourselves," Swinson said. "We pride ourselves on the physicality of our pack. Teams keep saying they hate playing against Glasgow because we are a pain - physical and aggressive. We have to win the Dragons game to stay at the top of the league, where we want to be."