Adam Hastings has played in a football stadium just once before, and it didn’t go too well, but it fortunately wasn’t in rugby.
The Glasgow Warriors and Scotland stand-off was sometimes a defender, sometimes a right wing for the George Watson’s College school soccer team, and played in the Scottish Independent Schools’ final against Stewarts Melville at Tynecastle, home of Hearts.
“It was pretty rubbish, we lost 3-0,” he said. “That was my schools’ final for Watsons, in football not rugby!
“I was right wing at the time, but I’ve played all over the shop. I think I was put back to centre-back when they realised I was slow.”
As for Celtic Park, where he’ll lead the Warriors attacking game in Saturday’s Guinness PRO14 Grand Final against Leinster, he has plenty of experience of the atmosphere but only from the stands.
“I’ve been a few times. I’ve got a good mate from school who is a really massive Celtic fan, so I’ve been to watch a few games with him
“Football fans are a lot louder than rugby fans in general, so that atmosphere is incredible there. They’ve got some of the best fans I the world, so it has been a good experience when I’ve gone.”
Hastings was pretty much on the mark for Glasgow in Friday’s semi-final rout against Ulster, kicking seven goals and as far as he’s concerned, if you can get by kicking in the wind-tunnel that is Scotstoun, then you can do it anywhere.
“Scotstoun is fairly windy most weeks, so maybe the big stands at Celtic Park will give us a bit of cover,” he said. “Murrayfield is much the same and has those swirling winds at times.
“I’m not sure of the dimensions of the pitch there, whether it’s wider or shorter or whatever. But we’re fairly used to all sorts of places.
“We’ve not tried to get any advantage by going up there to have a look, I think we’re just going up for the captain’s run on Friday. It’s just what we would do during the season.”
Hastings will be up against Ireland and Lions stand-off Jonny Sexton head-to-head for the first time – if Leinster opt to start their talisman after he was only on the bench for Saturday’s semi-final – but he’s not daunted by the prospect.
“He’s obviously a quality player. He’s played in some massive games and his track-record and his CV is pretty good.
“But it will be no different to playing someone like Owen Farrell, which I’ve done this season.
I don’t think it will make too much difference to my game.”
Hastings was impressed by the physicality of the other semi-final, where Leinster eventually wore down rivals Munster in a brutal battle.
“It was extremely physical as most derbies are. Being an all-Irish affair they were getting stuck into each other. It looked like a tough game to play in, but Leinster showed their quality at the end and put their foot on Munster’s throat to close it out.
“It definitely will have got them over losing the Heineken Cup final. It was a good way for them to get going again, back into the PRO14 final. Munster are a quality outfit themselves so I think they’ll be happy with that.”
