The “old Tim” has been re-discovered in London but Scotland’s Flying Dutchman still believes what supposedly drove him out of Edinburgh made him a more rounded player.
Tim Visser was a frustrated man in his final couple of years at Edinburgh as the flow of ball that made him one of the most feared strike weapons in European rugby dried up under a more cautious gameplan under Alan Solomons.
Eventually Visser left for Harlequins where a more open style has him scoring tries in his old fashion, but he acknowledges that the now-departed Solomons’ influence on him helped him get his Scotland place back.
“Certainly I feel I have discovered a bit of the old Tim, how I used to be back in the day at Edinburgh when I basically got a lot of the ball,” he said. “That’s incredibly exciting for me as a winger, you obviously want to be on the end of things and scoring tries.
“But I feel like I have taken a lot out of that period under Solly, defensively I feel like I have grown as a player and benefited from that time when I was getting less ball at Edinburgh and focusing on other aspects of my game. I feel like I’ve become a more well-rounded player.
“At the end of the day, as a winger, you benefit from what happens around you. At a team like Harlequins we play a lot of creative rugby and a lot gets created for me, which makes it a lot easier for me to stand out.”
Now with Scotland there’s true competition for places with Sean Maitland returning and both Damien Hoyland and Rory Hughes pressing for inclusion, he added.
“It’s incredibly exciting to be a part of a back five at the moment with some incredible talent, and it’s only going to make people get better,” he said. “You saw that in the World Cup when Rory and Damien came in and competed hard for places, it pushed everyone on.
“No-one was really secure of their spot. I certainly felt like I was being pushed a lot and was on my toes. That’s the kind of situation you want, not only for when there is injuries but to make everyone better in the long term.”
Visser has also welcomed former team-mate Cornell du Preez into the squad this week, the latest like the wing himself to have qualified through residency to play for Scotland. Even as a groundswell grows to change the three-year residency qualification to at leats five, naturally the Dutchman supports it.
“It’s a tricky one, but I’m not going to criticise the process through which I’ve become eligible,” he said. “If you look at other sports it’s maybe slightly unusual. Cricket is seven years and in football it doesn’t even exist.
“As long as the rule exists that’s the way it is it’s a level playing field for every country, and we now get to have a quality player like Cornell come and join the squad.
“It’s the only way I personally could have played competitive international rugby. I agree it is an unusual rule but fortunately for myself it is the rule.”
Argentina come to BT Murrayfield on Saturday and Visser shares strange mixture of excitement and frustration in the home camp.
“I think the fact we are so competitive at the minute is fantastic, we are there or thereabouts in most games,” he said. “But it is very painful when we don’t win and come away with single point losses.
“We showed in that France game in the Six Nations for instance we can finish off the game. As long as we can put ourselves in positions to win and make the right decisions that’s all we can do.”
Argentina are a different team to even the one Scotland played two years ago, he adds.
“They’re more steady in terms of their starters than they were prior to the Rugby Championship,” he pointed out. They have a lot more continuity about how they play the game.
“One of their wingers looks enormous, the home-based player Manuel Montero. The little guy Santiago Corderro is really handy as well, he’s got an incredible step and I actually find that harder to defend against. It brings different challenges.
“They’ve got quality throughout. If you look at what they did at the World Cup last year, they’re a very good side and we’re certainly not underestimating them at all.”
