Left at home in Scotland in the summer, Nick De Luca admits he did get around to thinking “is this the end”?
The Edinburgh centre had won the last of his 38 caps as a replacement in the infamous Tonga game at Pittodrie a year ago. Injury had followed to knock him out of Six Nations contention, and then came news that, despite having recovered, he wasn’t going on tour to South Africa.
Happily for De Luca, Scott Johnson’s reasoning for not taking the 29-year-old to the Cape was not outright rejection, but to give him a proper off-season for the first time in many seasons. The response has been some of his best form and a place in the opening viagogo Autumn Test against Japan at Murrayfield.
“It felt like a really long time out, so I was just happy to be back in the squad and I’m absolutely delighted to be in the side,” he said.
“I had never missed a squad since my debut. The Six Nations was understandable because I was injured, but when I was told that in the summer I wasn’t going on tour that was a big blow, the first time I’d been left out.”
Naturally, looking back on the Tonga game as your last would make anyone who was involved think the worst.
“It wasn’t so much thinking ‘Tonga, what a way to end’, it was more ‘is this the end?” he continued.
“It wasn’t the position I wanted to be in but I was lucky enough to have a great pre-season, get the head down, get stuck in, just think about ‘control the controllables’.
“Tonga was obviously a horrible, dark day but I don’t think it’s preyed on the mind. We’ve addressed it and we’ve moved on well through the Six Nations and performed well in the summer, especially against South Africa on their turf. I think it’s a demon we’ve long put to bed.”
Johnson’s summer plan was to give Alex Dunbar and Matt Scott full rein as a centre partnership, and he revealed he didn’t select either De Luca or Max Evans to “stop myself reverting to type if things went wrong”.
De Luca has certainly noticed a lifted atmosphere returning to the camp for the first time under the interim head coach.
“The boys said there had been a big change in atmosphere, and there is,” he said. “It’s more upbeat, Johnno’s the leader and he sets the tone, the training’s fantastic and environment is great, so we just look to take that on the pitch on Saturday.”
De Luca’s main lesson from his difficult few months is that he needs to relax and stick to what he’s good at.
“I’m definitely better sticking in the systems, I’ve learned that the hard way, particularly defensively,” he admitted. “I just go back to what my strengths were, my running game is back, my defence is better than ever.
“Having a family also puts perspective on things. I’m enjoying it more, I don’t give it any less, but it’s not the be all and end all, it’s telling myself I put everything I can into it, so relax.”
Japan cannot be underestimated one jot, according to De Luca.
“The rugby public don’t know about Japan and they’re expecting this should be a walkover, but we’re not a superpower. We played them here a couple of years and only won by 10 points, and they’re a lot better than they were then,” he pointed out.
“They beat Wales, and they’re going to be in our pool for the World Cup. They’re coming for a scalp, no doubt about that. If we don’t play our best rugby, they’ll get that scalp.
“We need to build an innings and a score. New Zealand didn’t break them down for 20 minutes at the weekend before they scored.”