An old mongrel of a prop, Allan Jacobsen was on the point of proving he had reached a new level by learning some new tricks when personal disaster struck last autumn.
Having improved his lifestyle and upped his training regime to be, with his 29th birthday fast approaching, in the best condition of his career, personal disaster struck when, during the opening match of the World Cup, a 10p-sized hole tore in his calf muscle. In the greater scheme of things it was by no means a catastrophic injury, but it meant the end of his tournament and a real test of resolve.
"Directly after it I was devastated," he admitted. "For the first couple of weeks I couldn't train or anything and all this work I'd done was gradually going down the pan. I was in a bad place those first couple of weeks, but I thought Why ruin it all?' I know now what I have to do to keep up with everyone. It's tough sometimes but, if I want to be here or hereabouts, I just have to keep doing it.
"However, when I started training again it got better quickly. I got back into the Edinburgh team and from there I've felt really good, playing okay and getting picked every week, so I just hoped I could get back here."
There are few more popular figures in the national squad than this gruff, mischievous individual, as was demonstrated by the clear sadness in the Scotland camp in L'Etrat when he had to leave in September, and he has clearly fed off the support of colleagues.
"I'm mostly happy with the way I've been playing," was his understated assessment of what many reckon to be in the form of his life. "Obviously there are always things that can get better and there are things I need to work on, but coming back into the Edinburgh team when the boys were playing well, then the rest of the boys came back from the World Cup, it's been a good period to be playing well.
"When everyone's playing well it helps, and the fact that the boys at Edinburgh have been working so hard has helped everyone after the World Cup, as has new head coach Andy Robinson coming in."
That environment has also rewarded the decision to concentrate Scotland's resources into two teams, creating the sort of competition for places that means Dave Callam is playing for Scotland even though he cannot get a game for his club because Ally Hogg is captaining the team from the No.8 position.
With Edinburgh still providing the biggest contingent in the squad, that can, in turn, benefit the national side. "I think the boys are coming into this with a lot more confidence than in the past. Boys are playing out their skin trying to get a game for Edinburgh and that's making a big difference to the way we're performing," he said.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article