As a major career landmark approaches for Jonny Gray tomorrow evening his reaction to having been dropped for his 99th game for Glasgow Warriors last weekend explained by he is a dream to coach and to play alongside, but perhaps also why he is not as much of a nightmare to play against as other international locks of his experience.
No player has a reputation for working harder than the former Glasgow captain, his tackle counts frequently generating awe and his willingness to carry the ball also frequently seeing him heading post-match statistical lists, resulting in him having been a near automatic choice for both club and country for several years.
As to his team ethic, his repeated profession of his pride in playing for both teams and how overwhelmed he continues to be at what he frequently describes as the “surreal” nature of continuing to fulfil his boyhood dreams have become staples of any media interviews he undertakes.
Even so, to be left out of the Warriors starting line-up for their biggest game of the season, just two weeks after the indignity of similar treatment by the national team management ahead of Scotland’s bid to retain the Calcutta Cup a fortnight ago, might seem hurtful, but that is not how the ever ‘on-message’ Gray sees it.
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“You want to do as best you can for the team and you respect the coaches’ decisions,” he said.
“The way the guys have been playing when (the Scotland players in the Glasgow squad) have been away they were deserving. I just do what I can for the team. I love this club. It’s where I’m from and you want to do it proud in any way you can.”
It was ever thus for a lad who has seemed eternally grateful for his every involvement since, just a few months after big brother Richie had left to join Sale Sharks, making his debut off the bench for the Warriors as an 18-year-old replacement in a defeat over Edinburgh in December 2012.
“I was very nervous. I remember when Gregor (Townsend, their then head coach) told me I couldn’t believe it,” he recounted.
“I went across the road to the cafe and took in what had been said. It was a dream come true to be a professional rugby player and represent the club where I’m from.
“It meant so much to my family and friends and I couldn’t be prouder. I’d obviously seen my brother come through here, I was coming through the academy just as he was leaving. It’s flown by.”
Since then he has been an integral part of a squad that has continued with the already well-established pattern of perennial involvement in the Pro14 play-offs without being able to make any sort of progress in European rugby.
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This season, for only the third time since they looked to be on the point of making a breakthrough by finishing second in their Champions Cup pool, they were at least competitive enough to finish second for only the second time since, half of their European campaigns in the interim having seen them finish bottom of their pool. The seven-try, 56 point thrashing from Saracens last weekend, on the back of home and away defeats to the English champions in the pool stages, provided the latest evidence of their ineffectiveness at that level.
“It was just very disappointing. We wanted to go a stage further than we had before in that tournament,” said Gray.
“All credit to Saracens. They deserved the win and they made too many mistakes defensively. They scored some tries where we should be better in that area. The biggest thing when you lose for Glasgow is you feel you’ve let a lot of people down and that’s the worst thing. Worst feeling. Especially the fans who come from all over to watch us. You get to meet them and they’re great people. You want to do them proud.
“The whole squad feels that. You represent the whole city when you play here and they drive us a lot.”
He does not accept the charge that in their eagerness to play with style, they have reverted to the unwanted status that dogged the organisation in the early days of professionalism, that they were considered nice to watch and nice to play against, albeit he acknowledged that they had made it all too easy for Saracens.
READ MORE: Adam Hastings reckons Glasgow Warriors can feed off pain of Champions Cup exit
“I think we’re tough to beat but we didn’t do enough of that at the weekend. That’s ultimately why we lost,” Gray admitted. “It’s a very tight-knit team here and we’ll focus back on the league. It was tough on Monday looking back at the footage and what we should have done better. We have to focus on Ulster now.”
Which is all they can do, set their sights on the Pro14 play-offs once again and try to extend their season that way.
“That’s the beauty of sport. You get an opportunity to put things right. It’s Ulster, they’ll be a tough challenge. They just missed out to Leinster in a very close game,” said Gray.
“There is a massive belief in the squad and togetherness and we have to look at what has just happened at the weekend, stick together, because we know against Ulster it’s going to be a big challenge. They’re very physical, they can score from anywhere and are obviously very well coached by Dan (McFarland, the ex-Scotland assistant coach) so it’s going to be a challenge. We need to move on quick.”
He insist, too, that for all that togetherness, there is sufficient robustness in the way they communicate with one another to ensure that players are challenged for their failings “all the time.”
“That’s one of the best things, ever since I’ve been at this club, the culture,” he claimed. “I think it’s grown and grown and that’s what’s so good about the club here. If something’s not right we’ll say to each other. Low standards, that goes from coach to player, player to coach. That’s how we learn all the time and it makes the environment competitive. We know we’ve got standards that have to be set and that’s the great thing about this club.”
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