John Barclay’s absence from the Scottish set-up hurt badly, so the flanker is enjoying and appreciating his renaissance this season; but he’s seen too much to be too comfortable.
The flanker was in the international wilderness for two years, seemed set to be recalled for the Rugby World Cup but was left out at the 11th hour, only to finally get a full recall for this RBS 6 Nations where he’s been a vital part of Scotland’s new game at the breakdown.
But now reaching the veteran status Barclay, who was first involved in a Scotland squad when barely out of Dollar Academy, will never rest on the laurels handed to Scotland after their improved performance this year.
“I always enjoyed playing for Scotland, and appreciated it,” he said. “But when you’re in there you get in a habit, and it almost feels like a club side, especially when you’re involved in Glasgow and Edinburgh, Scotland’s just kind of an extension of that.
“I’ve come back a little bit older and wiser and maybe I do appreciate it more, because I certainly don’t have another 49 caps ahead of me.”
Barclay has certainly widened his game, a factor he puts down to his move to play with Scarlets in Wales.
“I think it’s just the style and philosophy Scarlets play, but playing across the back row means I’m always more likely to be involved than just as open side,” he said.
“Maybe it’s just the way I look at the game now. I’ve benefitted playing with James Davies at Scarlets, people say I’ve had an influence on him but I think’s it’s the other way around, he just plays what’s in front of him and that’s a good thing.
“Sometimes I maybe over analysed things and now I just try to stay in each moment and see it through.”
Barclay believes that it hasn’t been a massive turnaround by Scotland during the championship.
“Test rugby is just so hard anyway. We lost by a few points to England, then by a couple to Wales, then the last two we’ve won by a decent margin.
“I’ve been around long enough not to think `is this it, is this the time we’re going to turn the corner?’. You can only claim these things once you’ve actually done it.
“We’ve won two games and that’s not a huge amount yet. I think we’ve played well, some good attacking rugby and scored good tries, so we’ll keep it at that.”
Barclay is pleased to see the squad get due reward for how they’ve played overall.
“It’s certainly much easier to come in after a win in the tournament. There’s been a good vibe around for a number of weeks now and it’s really good to get the reward.
“Across the board we’ve done quite well and stepped up each week. It the tournament you can always start at a certain level and I feel we’ve notched it up week-on-week.”
He wouldn’t necessarily say this Scotland team is better than others he’s played in, nor indeed than the team that won in Dublin in 2010, the last time they beat Ireland there.
“It’s different times and different teams,” he said. “Certainly I think we’re in a good place. Vern’s very good at keeping us grounded, getting us working and staying humble to strive towards greatness and Greig’s the same.
“Genuinely it’s been a very good camp and the boys are digging in. There’s always been that belief that we could kick on a bit but until you actually win a couple of games they’re just words.
“In 2010 we’d played well in patches, played poorly against France, there was that game against Wales when we just gave it away, then we should have beaten Italy and drew with England.
“When we got to the final game we thought we really need to do something, we felt we’d been written off. Ireland were saying `we’re going to win the Triple Crown’ .
“I remember the guys being a bit annoyed by that and thinking, we’d played too well over the piece to not win a game. Johnnie (Beattie) scored a great try, Dan (Parks) kicked that penalty at the end to win it. I remember it was a good night afterwards!”