Nick Haining’s gran Norma never lets anyone forget her Dundee roots and she’ll be trying to stay up all night on Saturday to see her grandson make his Scotland debut.
The 29-year-old Edinburgh back row forward, who converted from playing on the wing for Western Force in Australia just six year ago to the vastly different position of No 8, is poised to make a huge leap into the Scotland team just a few months after arriving in the country.
His roots in this country go deeper than his accent might suggest, however, with Norma having emigrated to Australia in the sixties as with her family under the “£10 poms” scheme, where families were attracted to a new life Down Under paying just the registration fee of a tenner.
Now in her 80s, Norma lives in a retirement community in Scarborough, on the coast just northwest of Perth in Western Australia.
“She’s sharp as a saw, and she’s never lost her accent,” said Haining. “She came over with my grandpa but she’s still a proud Scot and she’ll be thrilled if I get on the park. I had a chat to her on the phone last week and she’s very excited.
“The game might be a bit late for her, but I’m sure she’ll go round to my place and somebody will show her the replay.”
It’s been a long and varied trip for Haining, who played in direct opposition against one of his new team-mates Sean Maitland when the Britsih and Irish Lions met the Western Force during the 2013 tour – and at that time he was a wing.
“I remember it quite clearly, to be honest, but Sean doesn’t remember me!” he said. “It was a massive deal for me at the time. I’d actually left the Force’s academy and was called back to play against the lions, which was a dream come true.
“It was a surreal experience, and I guess not a lot of people can say they’ve played against the Lions. It was huge for me at the time, and I never thought I’d be playing with a few of these boys now.”
Instead, Haining was considering other career paths once his career stalled back in Australia.
“After I left the Western Force and things weren’t really progressing in Australia, you obviously weigh up the options,” he said. “I was doing university at that time and thought ‘do I play casually at my local club and just take a different career path?’
“But a few of my mates were playing for Jersey, and said ‘chuck your highlight reel out and see where you go from there’.
“That spurred me on to go on and enjoy rugby a bit, I got that enjoyment back playing for Jersey, and going from there to Bristol and then onto Edinburgh.”
Richard Cockerill was at Leicester first spotted Haining playing for Jersey, and followed up that interest last summer, but international rugby was not on his radar.
“I had told my agent I was Scottish-qualified, and I think I was on Richard’s radar,” he said. “Cockers got in contact with me quite early and we talked and I was more than happy to come up. And everything’s been going well since.
“Even in just the five months I’ve been here, his influence has been massive. He’s got a real tough edge, and the way he’s developed my game in the five months I’ve been here – and the pre-season as well, the conditioning and everything like that – that has played a massive part in the way I’ve played the game and the mental attitude as well.”
Haining had no real international aspirations at Edinburgh at first, but that quickly changed.
“There was always just an element there of aspiring to be in the Scotland squad. Starting a few games for Edinburgh, you think ‘I can try hard enough and do everything right, tick the boxes, I’ll maybe get to playing internationally’.
“But at the time you’re so focused on Edinburgh that you don’t really think of it that much. You just want to get your performances out on the pitch and then hopefully the work will take care of itself, which it has.
“I mean, having that six months, coming into the squad now has been enormous for me. It is a real honour and I’m very excited.”
