When Grant Wilson was carried from the field during a game against Currie in 1995, it brought to a premature end the career of a Boroughmuir stalwart whose talents had yet to be fully recognised at the highest level. It is a generally accepted truth that the prop forward would have gone on to gain the Scotland cap that had eluded him, at the time of his injury he was fully involved in the national ‘A’ team. Ten years on, however, Grant has returned to the first team set up at Meggetland, taking over the team manager’s duties from Davie Barr. 

To see a career ended in such a way, through no fault of anyone save for misfortune, is never a pleasant sight. The seriousness of the incident seemed apparent to all at once, including the man at the centre of it. “I made a big mistake by running with the ball in hand, something that didn’t happen very often and I was hit with a perfectly fair tackle and realised pretty soon that I was hurt quite badly. I had no strength in my leg at all, the bottom half of my leg was moving left to right as well as front to back, so though it wasn’t that sore, I knew it was a bad one.”

For such a significant moment in his playing career, however, it was years before Grant even knew who it was who had tackled him. “At the time I couldn’t have told you who it was that hit me, and it wasn’t until five or six years ago that I found out. I was working down at Leith and a guy called Colin Black, who played for Currie, was telling me how he’d played against Boroughmuir at the weekend and tackled Olly Brown whose leg had made the same sound as when he tackled me back in ’95. I had no idea it was Blacky, he’s a good friend who I’ve played with in the Police team and it was a wee bit strange to find out like that.”

The fact that Grant’s injury came playing for ’Muir in a two week gap between ‘A’ team fixtures may come as a surprise to some in this professional age of players being wrapped in cotton between international fixtures, but for him at the time it was the natural thing to do. “I’d played for the ‘A’ team against Samoa down at Hawick and I was due to play for them two weeks after that against Ireland and Boroughmuir had a game the weekend in between against Currie. Nobody had told me that I shouldn’t play and Boroughmuir didn’t put any pressure on me to play at all, it was just the natural thing to play a game of rugby at the weekend and unfortunately it ended the way it did.”

Wilson, who grew up in Prestonpans “something I like to think I’ve put behind me”, joined Boroughmuir when he left home in 1985. “I left Under18 and started work in Edinburgh and because I didn’t have any transport I had to move into town, and that was when I started playing for Boroughmuir. So I played for ‘Muir for ten years and certainly enjoyed my time on the field.”

Those ten years could, of course, have been more had Grant been able to end his career on his own terms, but even he doesn’t know how much longer he would have continued to play the game. “I suppose I do look back and wonder ‘what if’ at times but to be honest I don’t know how much longer I would have played anyway. I’d said to myself that I wasn’t going to play my way down the club as people like Dave Cockburn did, that just wasn’t for me. When my time was up I would know and I’d call a day on it. I would have liked to have gone further than I did, obviously I was still involved with the ‘A’ team at the time and I was still hoping to get the elusive cap but I’ve moved on and there’s certainly more to life than rugby, I’m not one to hold regrets about anything.”

However, after a decade away from the inside involvement of team affairs, Grant has made a comeback this season as he takes on the reigns of team manager. “Having two kids in the house drove me to get out really. I’d been coming along to watch the games every week anyway, and I felt that I should be doing something. I was involved with the old Edinburgh district set up a couple of years after I got injured, doing some management for them and I enjoyed it but it was really becoming more of a full time job so I couldn’t stay on with it. I felt I should be doing more, and with Stuart Reid coming on board as coach and the development gathering pace I felt it was going to be an exciting time to be involved with the club.”

His friendship with Reid has obviously played a big part in helping him ease back into the running of the club, and the coaching team are one that Grant finds it very easy to work with. “I’ve known Stuart since he came to the club and I played a lot with Bruce too and we get on well together. They let me do my thing which is effectively to make sure that their job is as simple as possible. They’ve not been shouting at me yet so I guess I’m doing OK.”

What has surprised a few, is that Grant has taken up team management rather than coaching given his obvious pedigree. “To be honest, I didn’t feel confident enough about my knowledge of the game. That might sound strange, but the game has moved on a lot since I last played with the change to the professional era. And having enjoyed the management that I did with Edinburgh and realising that the organisational side of things is something that I’m good at it just felt natural to go into the management role rather than a coaching one.”

Like any new member of a team, Grant has had to forge a relationship with the players and he is pleased with the positive response they have given him. “We organised the trip to Blackrock and to Otley which both went pretty much trouble free which was a real boost for me. I expected that if I made a real mess of that then I’d have had quite a bit of difficulty getting respect from the players, but it all went well and I’ve certainly had no negative comments.”

And just as the players respect him, Grant rates the current crop taking to the field at Meggetland very highly. “I think they’re a fantastic mix, they have phenomenal potential. I see young lads like Rob Cairns and Sam Paulo, Greig Scott and Craig Marshall and think that they’ve got all the potential in the world. Any team with Rory Couper and Charlie Keenan in it is going to score tries and be exciting and I think if we can keep the ethos of the club that was developed under Sean Lineen and Iain Paxton then we can continue to be an attractive club for years.”

The importance of youth to the future of the club, however, is far from lost on Grant. “I also think it’s really important that we get at least a couple of players every year from the Under18, getting them is a godsend. And it must be an incentive for the boys at the Under18 at the moment to see players like Rob, Sam, Greig and Craig all really involved in the team.”

Whilst he watches the players around him blossom, Grant has ambitions for his own future in the game. “I retire in ten years time, or six and a half if my knee or back give out before then and I’ll still be a young guy so I’ll need to do something. I would love to stay in the game, it’s going to be an exciting time for Scottish rugby and I would certainly like to go further as a manager but for the moment I’ve got more than enough on my plate looking after this lot.”

One thing that it is certain Grant does not lack is enthusiasm. Be it talking about the potential of the players, the club or indeed his own future, he comes across as someone who loves the game of rugby and being involved with it. With a new coaching team in place and the new development taking shape, there definitely could be exciting times ahead for all connected with Boroughmuir.

Simon Furnivall