Sam Johnson was the frontline 12 for Scotland for almost two years but things move fast and the centre’s got massive competition for a recall for the Six Nations game against Ireland on Sunday.
Johnson has had problems with injury and a Covid-19 isolation to get through. He had to “sit in isolation for almost a month feeling fully fit” – and was initially left out of the Six Nations squad.
However the value Gregor Townsend sees in the playmaking centre was shown by Johnson’s recall as soon as he’d put together a run of games – only to find Cam Redpath, James Lang and others vying for his slot.
Getting the consistency of selection
“Hopefully I get picked and go from there,” he said. “I played a fair bit before this year and it is just getting that consistency again.
“When I play continuously, week after week, I play my best rugby. I haven’t had the chance to do that this season until this last few weeks. I’ve had a run of three or four in a row and that was a first since this time last year.”
Not that Johnson has ever felt a fixture for Glasgow or Scotland; that’s not the attitude of an elite sportsman, he thinks.
“As a professional rugby player you’ve never made it. I think you have to fight for it every week,” he said. “I never thought I would just cruise through.
“If you think like that that is when you will be dropped or not have a job. Being in an elite sports environment if you are not good enough you get sacked. So I have never have had that thought.”
Youth making itself known in Scotland camp
And the numbers of young players coming through steels against such an attitude. Young clubmates Jamie Dobie and Rufus McLean are in the full national squad, wing McLean after just four games for Glasgow.
“There’s Rufus, Cole Forbes and Ollie Smith at Glasgow, all 21 years old and absolutely electric,” he said. “There’s a lot of real positives to look forward to and as young kids, once they’ve played a couple of games they really get stuck in.
“I’ve been nothing but impressed with the way Rufus conducts himself on and off the pitch.
“There’s a fair few guys who are of a younger age in the squad this week. But that’s a really good thing with Scotland; it doesn’t matter who you are, integration is awesome.
“It’s pretty easy to talk to whoever at the dinner table, and we do things to interact with each other off the pitch.”
‘Things have changed’
As for Ireland, the teams know each other maybe too well after three meetings in the last year and a half.
“We know the test that is going to come against Ireland,” continued Johnson. “We seem to have played them a lot over the last couple of years and they’ve had the upper hand.
“But I feel that a lot of things have changed in camp. We will prepare well this week and give it our best shot on Sunday.
“We want to continue the momentum the boys had built. I was in camp for that France week and it was really disappointing not to play that game.
“I wasn’t in camp for the first two games. From an outsider looking in it looked like everyone is enjoying each other’s company and want to play for each other.”
