YOU might imagine that the conversation when the head coach pulls you to one side and tells you you are not going to the Rugby World Cup despite eight weeks of gruelling work at the training camp would be a traumatic one.
The modern player has to be able to adjust though. Take Kyle Steyn. He admits it was disappointing to get the bad news but he is determined to use it as a springboard to bigger and better things. After all, at the start of the year, few had even heard of him so to get that close that quickly was impressive.
“Being in the camp was a great experience,” he said. “There was lots of learning, a really good environment. It was a shame not to have made it but there’s lots to take out of it and into this season, lots to build on.
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“That’s why we play the game, you want to be in that sort of environment with the best names. That’s the only way you’re going to get better. There is no point in shying away from that. That’s where you want to be – with the best guys performing at your best and seeing how you go.
“I’m looking forward to just getting a good crack with Glasgow. The guys left behind have got a job to do, we have to make sure that the Glasgow flag flies high while the boys are away in Japan.
“It has been a good year for me. It was a good time to be at Glasgow as well. Scotstoun was sold out week-in, week-out and then we managed to get to the [Guinness PRO14] final in Glasgow, which doesn’t come round too often. It was a really enjoyable time for me, probably the best of my career so far.”
Speaking as the law firm Harper Macleod unveiled its renewal of the sponsorship deal with the club, which dates back to 2015 and will see the firm’s name continue to adorn the west stand and the club deck at Scotstoun Stadium, Steyn was in bullish mood about Glasgow’s prospects with the five players who have come back from Scotland duty likely to play a key role in the early part of the campaign.
“We’ve guys coming back from Scotland, a couple coming back from injury and all of us really keen to get involved,” he said. “Being back at Scotstoun in front of the home crowd – almost full capacity – I just can’t wait to be back in front of our home fans.”
Those are the same fans who made May such a special time as Steyn helped Glasgow to the PRO14 final at Celtic Park, a run of games that earned him his call-up to the World Cup squad.
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It was tough, especially since he was mainly running at wing when he thinks he is better as a centre, but it was still a shock when he was one of four axed the week before the warm-up matches started.
“We had been warned in a team meeting that a couple of boys were going to get cut,” he said. “We were in the hotel and he [Gregor Townsend, the head coach] pulled me aside and gave me a couple of reasons as to why they were letting me go, a couple of things to work on.
“Getting a bit of a taste of that, being involved, certainly creates the hunger. Just as I said when I went in for Six Nations, it has just made me hungry for more.
“Being in that set-up and getting the confidence of knowing you can make it at that level creates a bigger hunger to just want to be back there.
“Now, from my point of view, I’m just going to focus on the job we’ve got here in the Glasgow jersey and I’ll be putting my best foot forward and making sure we keep the flag flying high.”
So for him, it is not about the flight to Japan but about the flight Glasgow will be making to South Africa where they open their PRO14 campaign against the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein.
“That will be a challenge,” Steyn said. “The Cheetahs have just won the Currie Cup, playing pretty much the PRO14 team the whole way through. They’ll be nicely settled and be in front of their home fans so it’ll be a good challenge for us.”
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