Don’t doubt Hamish Watson’s fervent devotion to the Scotland cause against Australia at BT Murrayfield today – the unwashed socks of Dan Parks and Ross Ford prove it as much as his name.
Les Watson may have been domiciled in Manchester when his son – who makes his first start in the back row today against the Wallabies – was born but he made absolutely sure that the boy’s roots would be blindingly obvious with his choice of name.
Later father and son spent many hours driving up and down the M6 and M74 to attend internationals at Murrayfield. It was there that young Watson was among the crowd of boys who wait at the team bus after games for the distribution of kit, and that’s where the stand-off’s socks became his prized possession.
“I don’t remember my first game exactly but I can remember waiting outside to get Dan Parks’ socks and Fordy’s socks,” he said. “When you’re a kid you get caught up in the whole occasion. The most exciting thing as a kid was meeting all the players afterwards.
“I think I’ve still got them somewhere. That probably sounds quite creepy but I’ve played against Dan and with Fordy quite a few times now. You know how your mum keeps all your old kit – so I think they must be in a box somewhere.”
Hamish was the only boy at his boarding school who supported Scotland and took no end of stick for it, but he never wavered.
“There were times when we won a few times thanks to Mossy’s kicks, so that helped, but I had to take quite a bit of stick,” he said. “But I was in the Exiles system at 15 and to start for the national team was obviously a huge dream for me.”
And when he signed an Academy contract at Edinburgh and Murrayfield became his place of work, he started to believe in the dream.
“For a young kid starting out, it is a massive thing to change in the Murrayfield changing rooms,” he said. “Then you run out on the pitch in your first game and it’s a huge occasion. You walk past the main dressing room every day but you still don’t think you’re going to go on, get in there and get a cap for Scotland.
“You dream about it and think about it, but never get too far ahead of yourself. So it’s great that I’ve got here now.”
This will be Watson’s third cap but first start, the previous two both being against Italy in vastly differing circumstances.
The debut was a best forgotten, yellow-carded in the final play of the game as the Scots lost at Murrayfield. The second he made a big difference coming off the bench in the Rugby World Cup warm up in Turin, but it wasn’t enough to get him a place in the squad.
“I feel a more rounded player now,”he added. “When I got my first cap in the Six Nations I still had an awful lot to work on.
“I still do now, but back then I was a bit raw. Vern always pulled me aside and gave me a few things to work on.
“I then wasn’t selected for a few squads so you are consciously trying to work on the things you’ve been told to improve on.
“Alan Solomons kept selecting me for Edinburgh and it’s been the same under Duncan Hodge and the way Edinburgh try to play now has helped me massively.”
Scotland effectively go in with three opensides in the back row – although John Barclay and Ryan Wilson, like Watson, have much more to their game – against two masters of the Art of 7, David Pocock and Michael Hooper.
“You have to want to test yourself against the best in the world, only the other week against Harlequins for Edinburgh we faced a few Lions boys and a few England players,” he pointed out.
Of course you admire Pocock and Hooper, but you don’t want to get caught up in it, looking at what they’re doing.
“You concentrate on your game.”