Those who really know Jonny Gray speak with total conviction. This, they say, is no ordinary 22-year-old rugby player. "Right now, without a doubt, I'd have him up there as one of the best in the world," says Tommy Seymour, who plays alongside him for both Scotland and Glasgow Warriors. "His tackle count is scary to the point where sometimes people think our analysts are fudging it. He is a phenomenal player."
This, remember, is a youthful lock forward who is barely three years into his Test career. In his 10 Six Nations games to date, Scotland have lost eight. Amid all that recurring gloom, though, there have been enough illuminating Gray days for his friends to argue he should be a dead cert for this year's British and Irish Lions Test side, not merely the tour party. "It's scary to think how many more years he has and how much better he can get," continues Seymour, confident the wider rugby public are about to recognise what he and his team-mates have known for years.
The list of the things Gray cannot do is revealingly short. If you need someone to win you a lineout, there are few more dextrous in the air. Not many tight forwards can pass as surely in open field, which can leave defenders caught in two minds. And then there is his tackling. In the last two Six Nations tournaments combined he has made 142 tackles and missed one. In Scotland's three November games he attempted 43 tackles and missed none. Not one.
If it is slightly premature to describe him as the new Paul O'Connell or Martin Johnson, those were precisely the players he aspired to be as a kid at Cambuslang RFC. Already he has captained Glasgow into the last eight of Europe for the first time in the club's history and was among the try-scorers in the recent 43-0 annihilation of Leicester at Welford Road. If Scotland do come good in this forthcoming Six Nations, with Ireland due at Murrayfield on Saturday, it will not be hard to locate one of their central pillars.
Moreover if one Gray does not knock 50 shades of Scottish blue out of you, the chances are his brother will. Jonny and his elder sibling Richie are the 47th pair of brothers to represent their country, a throwback to the illustrious Brown brothers who also hailed from the west of Scotland.
Like any other younger brother, Jonny was required to serve a long, painful back-garden apprenticeship: “I got beaten up a lot growing up but Richie was a very good role model. Growing up I saw at first hand the sacrifices he had to make, as well as the extra weight sessions and the diet stuff. There were no excuses for me. I knew how hard I had to work if I was going to make it as well.”
Although Richie now plays his club rugby in France, the pair remain each other’s sternest critics: “We know each other very well but we’re very harsh on each other. There are a lot of times when he’s calling me out but that’s the environment we have to have.” Only when he stands beside him for the anthems does Jonny momentarily admit to a softer side. “To play with Rich is unbelievable . . . it’s hard to put into words what it means.
“When Rich broke through and we were watching him, either from the stand or at home, it was one of my proudest moments. People would say: ‘You’ll be there with him one day, Jonny’ and I’d laugh because I never thought it would be true. To stand there singing the national anthem next to him is pretty emotional. It’s incredible.”
If the late, great Gordon Brown was rather more of a natural raconteur, there is no disguising the drive of his latter-day successor, whose twin sister Megan works for a law firm. A year spent on a rugby scholarship in New Zealand being mentored by the former All Black captain Reuben Thorne did no harm and, at 6ft 6ins tall and almost 19 stone, Jonny also has the requisite physical dimensions to complement his talismanic qualities.
“I genuinely can’t speak highly enough of the guy,” stresses Seymour. “He is very quiet and calm but has developed massively in terms of his leadership. He goes about his business in a very professional manner and he just doesn’t make mistakes. On the very rare occasions he does, he’s back on the horse very quickly. We’re incredibly lucky to have him and we hope he’s going to be here for a long time. He’s a fine ambassador for everyone in Glasgow.”
How fortunate indeed for Scottish rugby that Gray, who now has 28 caps, did not head down the same sporting path as the majority of Glaswegian schoolboys: “My family were always a football family, they never played rugby. It was my best friend’s Dad who took me down to the rugby club. It was new to our family but from the moment me and Rich got the ball we were hooked straight away. Some of my family are still trying to learn the rules.”
Some Scotland supporters are also still trying to get their heads around the current squad being praised as their strongest since the Six Nations began in 2000. In that time they have failed to finish higher than third and lost all but one of their 17 opening games but Gray is not programmed to settle for mediocrity. “Scottish rugby as a whole has got a good buzz around it at the moment. We know the challenges and Ireland first up is a massive one. It’ll be huge. But everything we’re doing is aimed at making Scotland proud. We want to win in that jersey.” Bet against big Jonny and his mates at your peril.
Guardian Service
