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ONE of the back-row darlings of Scottish rugby had dreams of playing for the mighty All Blacks as a schoolboy … and has revealed how crippling injuries cost him his career but helped him find love.
Cameron Mather is part of a double bill of sporting entertainment at the Bahrain Rugby Club tomorrow evening.
The other guest speaker is legendary All Black captain Sean Fitzpatrick who was appointed as global rugby ambassador by DHL, the official logistics partner of the Rugby World Cup 2011.
Mather, 38, was born in the New Zealand city of Christchurch and could well have lined up for the country of his birth had it not been for family ties.
“Wiith a name like Cameron there was little doubt of my heritage – add in two brothers called Scott and Stuart and you can start to see we are quite proud of our past,” he told GulfWeekly.
“I think like just about every Kiwi kid I grew up dreaming of being an All Black, I remember John Leslie a fellow Kiwi Scottish International who said the day he got his first cap for Scotland was the happiest and saddest day of his life as he knew he could never be an All Black.
“I left New Zealand aged 21 when the game was still amateur for what was going to be a six-month rugby holiday – 16 years later I’m still here!
“I played provincial Rugby and Super 10 the forerunner to Super 15 so had sampled the game at the highest level in New Zealand, but no one saw the game going professional and the extent to which the world landscape of rugby would change as a result of it.
“When the game went pro I was in the UK and I got offered a professional contract by the Scottish Rugby Union and jumped at the opportunity to get paid to do something I loved and will do for free – the international caps and honour of Six Nations and World Cups were a by-product of doing something I loved, not the reason.
“My dad went to St Andrews College and could play the bagpipes and we all went to St Kentigern’s Prep, a Presbyterian school with strong Scottish links.
“Growing up we were aware of where our parents and grandparents were from. As New Zealand is such a young country we don’t really have ‘history’ and everything we do is just a Kiwi slant on the way things are done in the UK – and its British and European history that you learn in school.
“My grandfather, who died in New Zealand, was shipped back to the homeland to be buried in Stirling Castle. I never met him as he died before I was born so I always used to write his initials on my test jerseys as a thank you to him as without that Scottish link maybe some of my dreams would never have become a reality.
“I remember watching the 5 Nations tournament, as it was then, with my dad at ungodly hours in the morning always supporting Scotland and the team playing England ... so nothing’s changed there, then!”
Mather – the Number 8 – was once the cornerstone of a Scotland side, but injury against England and France faltered any consistency in his play.
He returned to full fitness in the narrow defeat by the Barbarians at Murrayfield in May 2004 to subsequently break his ankle five days later against Queensland in Brisbane in the first Australian tour match.
That was to be Mather’s final appearance for Scotland as he chose to retire from the international game in the lead up to the 2005 Six Nations sighting despondency with injury. “I was actually very lucky I didn’t have any bad injuries until aged 31. As soon as I uttered those immortal words ‘I never get injured’ cue 18-months of frustration and anger,” he said.
“I managed to have five operations in 12 months - hernias, broken ankles, shoulder reconstructions. I guess you could argue it was 26 years of playing uncompromising rugby and throwing my body about the place without thinking.
“Sports medicine has moved on so much in the last few years. Injuries that would have ended careers 10 years ago are now repaired in six months.
“My advice to anyone suffering a sports injury is to take your time with your rehabilitation. Your body can only heal at a certain pace – Mother Nature can’t perform miracles.
“As frustrating as being injured is; use the time to work on parts of your game or body shape that need improving or even learn to play an instrument – you have to keep your mind active and busy.
“I guess the plus side of all my injuries was I met my physio wife, Fiona, as a result of this, so it wasn’t all bad. She’s off to the 2012 Olympics with the GB team so maybe that’s the secret ... be a physio, you get to perform your skills on the largest sporting stage and you don’t get injured!”
l The evening with Fitzpatrick and Mather will be staged in a marquee on the BRFC grounds in Janabiya at 7pm tomorrow, Tickets cost BD20. For further details email info@bahrainrfc.com or call the club’s reception on17695809.
