When Murray Douglas resigned himself to accepting his lifelong dream of playing professional rugby was over he consoled himself with the knowledge that he had a devoted girlfriend who was prepared, quite literally, to follow him to the ends of the earth.

A couple of years after he had come tantalisingly close to earning a place on Edinburgh’s books, he and fiancee Megan Lyons headed Down Under to make a new life for themselves.

Douglas had a fleeting taste of involvement in the pro game when invited to train with Edinburgh six years ago during a season that took Scottish rugby to unprecedented heights as they reached a Heineken Cup semi-final. Douglas played just one game in the campaign but Michael Bradley, the coach who steered them to the last four, said he was keen to discuss things further when the then 23-year-old lock returned home from a long-planned three-month rugby-playing trip to New Zealand.

It was not to be, however, Bradley discovering just how short memories can be in sport when he lost his job soon after. Douglas consequently spent the next two seasons playing for Heriot’s while completing the legal traineeship that meant he and his young girlfriend were well-qualified to pursue an exciting opportunity in Melbourne when embarking on their big adventure.

While a love of rugby remained, it was essentially only as a device to develop a social network that he joined a club in a city in which rugby union lags well behind Aussie Rules, rugby league and football in popularity. However, things changed rapidly. Douglas was invited to train first with Melbourne Rising, a feeder team to the Melbourne Rebels Super Rugby franchise whose coaches in turn quickly took note of the abrasive Scot.

“They told me they’d be really keen to have me in full-time in the pre-season. There was no guarantee of a contract, but you never know,” Douglas recounted.

“I was about 25, working about 50/60 hours a week as a lawyer in Melbourne and didn’t really enjoy the job, so thought this was one last throw of the dice. They said if nothing happened I could come back, so we had about four weeks, then a break for Christmas and I got called in for a meeting the first day back and told they would like to offer me a contract for the Super Rugby season.

“I was a little bit lucky because they had signed a Welsh international, Dom Day who was playing in Japan at the time and tore ligaments in his shoulder, but they said they were really impressed with me, so they’d like to have me for the rest of the season.

I think I’d shown I really wanted to be there, the fact I was doing it unpaid, using my savings to get by. The coach [Tony McGahan] liked that commitment because he’s quite an old school coach who likes old school players. I think that worked for me as well.”

Having struggled for recognition

as a youngster, competing with the most exceptional lock of his generation, Richie Gray, Douglas was entitled to consider himself due a break.

However, he suffered another of the wrong type just three days after agreeing terms, a fractured thumb ruling him out of action and a subsequent foot problem further restricting his involvement and so, when the Australian Rugby Union decided to disband the Perth-based Western Force franchise and the player market became flooded, he was surplus to requirements once more.

That ambition to play professionally had been rekindled, however and when his agent identified a vacancy across the Tasman with Northland in New Zealand provincial rugby, he jumped at another chance which then led to last season’s invitation to join the mighty Hurricanes in Wellington, becoming a team-mate of 11 All Blacks, including Beauden Barrett and the Savea brothers Julian and Ardie.

“I remember going into our first-team meeting and players had to put their expectations down for what they wanted to achieve that season and every single one of them put that they wanted to win Super Rugby,” said Douglas. “It was just quite interesting going into an environment where if we finished second we had failed. That also meant players throughout the season really held each other accountable.”

As one of just two overseas players who could be included on a Kiwi Super Rugby franchise, Douglas did sufficiently well in a team that came close to achieving its ambitions by reaching last season’s semi-finals, to be told that if he had another good season at Northland he was likely to return, but soon after returning there his agent was in touch to say the ACT Brumbies wanted to sign him. With Australian teams having slightly more scope to recruit foreign players, a longer deal was on the table, offering more security and consequently, after a recent trip back to Scotland to attend Megan’s brother’s wedding, the return trip was to the Australian capital of Canberra.

Douglas knows this is his best opportunity so far, playing for a team that has twice won Super Rugby in the past and has the likes of global superstar David Pocock on its books, among a posse of Wallabies.

“Ultimately, I want to play rugby. I’d much rather be playing every week, or as much as I can. When you hang up your boots you want to feel you’ve explored your full potential,” he said. “The Brumbies have a really impressive legacy as well and their high performance facility is world class.

“Speaking to [head coach] Dan McKellar, he’s got a really exciting and ambitious vision for the team. They’ve got a bit of a reputation as being a Wallaby factory for forwards. If they’re producing international players they must be a good team and have a good coaching set-up.”

Given his understated description of himself as a player – “I wouldn’t say I’m razzly. I just work pretty hard, I can take a hiding and I like the physical confrontation,” – Douglas’s career path would appear inspirational for compatriots who do not immediately make it in the pro game and while he acknowledges fortune has belatedly favoured him, he would dissuade no-one from following in his footsteps.

“A few stars aligned that made it possible. A bit of luck with guys getting injured meant I got my opportunities, but there are a lot of good club rugby players in Scotland, so if you’re still pretty motivated to be playing at the highest level, then I could see taking a year out and trying it as being worth it,” is his recommendation.

As to his own remaining ambitions, there is the matter of still aspiring to pull on a Scotland jersey one day, something he believes he will likely have to return to European rugby to have a chance of achieving.