Rory Hughes was regarded as an oddball for playing with an oddly shaped ball in his home turf, but he’s reached the Scotland team from those unlikely circumstances.
The 22-year-old grew up in Scotland’s largest housing estate, Castlemilk in Glasgow, and attended Kings Park secondary school, where there had never been a rugby team.
There is now, and the school also has their first Scotland cap in the oval-ball game when Hughes takes the field against Italy in Turin tomorrow.
The wing, a surprise choice of head coach Vern Cotter for the Rugby World Cup preparation squad, will get his chance this week, and he is visibly and hugely proud to be a trailblazer for an area that has not exactly been a hotbed for rugby.
“I’m so pleased, I was shocked to be selected but over the moon as well,” said Hughes, who played just five times for Glasgow last year. “It gives me extra pride, especially coming not having a rugby background through school or my parents.
“Not many people come from Castlemilk and go on to play professional rugby so I am proud to say I am the first to do it.
“There are so many people from my area who have great talent but let the Castlemilk in them keep them down.
“They don’t let themselves blossom but I always pride myself on where I come from, not an up and coming area or a posh area. It always helped me out on the rugby pitch as well, because if I got hurt instead of just lying down I would battle through it because you can’t show weakness coming from Castlemilk.”
Rory went to GHA minis in Clarkston as a boy because he was too big for football and caught the rugby bug.
“I went to Kings Park which was a football school and there was no rugby at all,” he said. “I was too big for the other sports and I asked my mum if I could get into rugby.
“I was always the odd one out as a rugby player as all my friends played football. They didn’t really say much about it as I was always bigger than them and I would bowl them over when we did play.
“We never anywhere near the numbers at school for a rugby team; in my year we barely had enough for a football team because there were so many suspended or bunking off! But they’ve got a rugby team now, and I’d love to go back and help out if I can.”
Hughes has had limited chances for Glasgow with Scotland regulars Sean Lamont, Sean Maitland and Tommy Seymour in the team, but he feels involvement over two months in training camp with Scotland has helped him.
“I was very shocked to get into the initial squad; I went for a medical which involved a heart test, but I thought we all needed to get it done as it was a World Cup year.
“It boosted my confidence though. It was recognition for how hard I was working even if it’s hard to get past the top guys we have at Glasgow.
“My game has improved by far, I try to take everything on board and take a lot more time now to take it all in.
“Training with the likes of Sean Lamont, Sean Maitland and Stuart Hogg is great as they are constantly helping me improve and I can see the improvement.”