Scots add their own Afro flavour
Thu, 13 Nov 2008 08:51
Afro flavour: Scotland flank Scott Gray
South Africa's two Zimbabwean imports, Tendai Mtawarira and Brian Mujati, will encounter an older 'brother' when they face Scotland in a one-off Test in Edinburgh on Saturday.
Scottish flank Scott Gray was, just like Mtawarira and Mujati, a boarder at the famous Peterhouse school in Marandera, near Harare, in Zimbabwe.
However, he was their senior at school by several years - six years in the case of Mujati and seven for Mtawarira.
In fact there will be four Zimbabwe-born players on display at Murrayfield - two in each side - with the exception that one of Scotland's Afro imports is a bit more mature.
Scottish wing Thom Evans may have been schooled at Winchester in England, but he was born in Zimbabwe the same year as Mtawarira - 1985.
Gray and Mujati will play off the bench, while Mtawarira and Evans are both in their respective starting XVs.
Gray, who was last week welcomed back from the international wilderness when Scottish coach Frank Hadden stuck to his pledge to reward the flank if he became a more consistent performer, is relishing the opportunity to go up against his two Peterhouse 'brothers'.
Having starred for Northampton this season, his ability to cover the whole back row won him the bench spot and he replaced Jason White in the second half against New Zealand last week to earn his second cap, four years after his first.
"It was great to be back involved last week and it's a great opportunity for me to play, hopefully, against South Africa," Grey told The Scotsman newspaper.
"The 'Beast' [Mtawarira] is a few years younger than me, so I'd left by the time he and Brian [Mujati] had started, but I knew they were at the Sharks and doing well.
"I have kept in touch with coaches and teachers back home. It was a very good school and I had a real personal touch with them, and I've just had a baby girl and, depending on the [political] situation of course, I'm even thinking about maybe taking her back there to have the kind of upbringing I had.
"The top level of rugby [in Zimbabwe] has fallen away. Zimbabwe played in the 1991 World Cup – against Scotland – and when I first left school they still had a national team, though it was struggling.
"It wasn't a blacks-whites issue – we had about 50-50 split at the school – but a large part of the rugby community out of school was farmers. Because rugby is seen as a tough sport it appealed more to farmers than people in the cities, so with a lot of farmers leaving it's fallen away. That was why I left – for the opportunity to play sport.
"I got offered the chance to go to Stellenbosch University in South Africa, but playing South African schools quite a lot, and getting beaten regularly, I found them to be quite arrogant and I didn't want to go there."
Instead, through a friend of his Barrhead-born father, Don, the teenager was offered an opportunity in Australia, with a Canberra club and he rose through the ranks to join the Brumbies academy and land a full-time training contract under Eddie Jones.
He failed to win a place in the title-winning Super 12 outfit, however, and after a stint in Rugby League with Brisbane Broncos was snapped up by Bath in the English Premiership, before landing at the Borders.
The year 2004 was a significant one for Gray. His mother passed away just as he was knocking on the Test door; he toured Australia with Matt Williams' squad that summer and was then handed a Test debut against the Wallabies. An injury just a week before the 2005 Six Nations championship then put paid to a potential run at blindside flank and when Hadden replaced Williams that May and turned to Jon Petrie and White, Gray dropped into the Test shadows.
Now 30, Gray has had to wait for a recall, but is proof that perseverance can pay off.
"Last week was unbelievable," he told The Scotsman.
"It has been hard dealing with the emotions of the last four years, and trying not to think about Scotland squad selections, but when we had the minute's silence before the All Blacks game, I started to get quite emotional thinking about my journey, where I'd been and that I'd got back here.
"It did feel like my first Test all over again, so hopefully this time I'll be able to enjoy it a wee bit more. It would mean more to me than anything just to get one up on the South Africans. I've always watched them play so to go up against them is a dream. I'm looking forward to it."
* Can Scotland upset South Africa? Which Zimbabwean faction will win? Let us know.
