LONG READ How Alex Craig overcame injuries, a red-card strike, and a struggling team

Months of anguish, setbacks and unfulfillment manifested itself in one swipe of Alex Craig’s right forearm. In April 2022, the big lock had been injured, and injured again. He’d torn his hamstring and sat out the first half of the season. He fought back to fitness then injured his back. George Skivington, Gloucester’s head coach, wondered why he wasn’t yet ready to play.

Then it happened. The 79^th minute of a Challenge Cup knockout against Northampton. Alex Coles grabbing Craig’s leg, the kind of skulduggery most self-respecting lock forwards get up to in most rolling mauls. Craig letting fly, Coles hitting the deck, and the officials doing the rest. A red card, and a three-match ban.

“I was back from my hamstring and I tweaked something in my back doing a squat in the gym, probably just trying to overcompensate a little,” Craig remembers. “I was feeling great, putting all my energy into the gym, and hurt my back.

“I was meant to play Perpignan [three months earlier] and didn’t because of my back and the coach was like, ‘he should be fit now’, and I wasn’t.

“I missed the next few games, then in one of my first games back, [Coles] pulled my leg out of the maul and I just lashed out naturally, something I should never have done, but I did it without even thinking. It was an act of desperation.

“The guy went down holding his face and it went to the TMO and there’s no hiding. After that incident I was like, I dunno why I’ve done that. It was a tough few weeks. The coach didn’t pick me after that. It played on my mind quite a bit.”

I was a typical 16-year-old boy in the sense of, I couldn’t do toast, never mind make a meal for myself.

Things have changed markedly for Craig since that bleak evening. He has found fitness and happiness in West Wales, a rampaging debut season in a toiling Scarlets team, and his route back to the Scotland squad after more than three years without a cap.

Now 27, Craig’s potential has been evident from an early age. A second row with a mighty engine, explosive power and, clearly, a bit of dog about him. Gloucester meant a lot to him, which is partly why the red card cut him so deeply, and why the fact his last game for the club eight months later, which ended in a dislocated shoulder, was wounding too. He’d been in the West Country for close to a decade, since leaving the family farm in Dumfries at 16 years old for a spot at renowned rugby nursery, Hartpury College. Italy juggernaut Seb Negri was a team-mate.

“I had to convince my parents to let me go,” he says. “They knew I wasn’t the biggest fan of school so I promised them I would work hard in my rugby, stick in and do my assignments. I did about 50% of that.

“I was a typical 16-year-old boy in the sense of, I couldn’t do toast, never mind make a meal for myself. It was pretty daunting but it was great, full of like-minded boys who were there to enjoy rugby and have a good laugh. I found it very natural and easy to fit in.”

He has never discarded the lessons learned on the farm, run by his father, Sandy. The relentless toil and the long winters and the myriad unexpected challenges agriculture tosses in one’s path. Craig hopes to work the place himself when the time comes.

“Growing up around my father, you see his frustrations when things are expensive or all the animals are dying. There’s never a day away from the farm, you’ve always got to go again, go again, it’s always long hours and it can be February when all the lambs are born and it can be f***ng snowing outside and you’ve got to go out and deal with that.

“For us it’s a matter of just training, it’s cold outside but you’ll do it for 40-45 minutes. That gave me plenty motivation when I was leaving home – the farm is a lot harder than playing rugby. We are fortunate to do what we do.”

Craig has been a ray of a light in a troubling season for the Scarlets, burdened as they are by the grave financial issues smothering Welsh rugby. He was the URC’s fifth-top tackler with over 200, making 27 in a single game, notably, against Edinburgh. He carried like a bull, breaking the competition record for beaten defenders by a lock, flummoxing nine Benetton players in one match. He played over 1200 minutes without his body breaking down and was named the region’s player of the year.

My second home was David Lloyd in Cardiff, I’d be there four or five times a week. I’m a big sauna guy, plunge pool, ice bath, just doing a bit of mobility between the matches.

This sterling form propelled him into Gregor Townsend’s squad for the summer tour. The dreich win over USA was his first since the hoodoo-smashing sacking of Paris in 2021, a cap hiatus of close to 40 months.

“You are desperate to get back there and you are aware of how badly you want to get back,” he says. “All you want is to get that moment and that feeling and being part of those victories like Paris. The injuries almost made me want it even more.

“Last season, I probably understood my body a bit more and really tried to look after myself between games. It sounds really basic, but you don’t really think about it when you’re younger, you just run out there and feel invincible.

“Once I realised that wasn’t the case, I had to do extra mobility, stretching – my second home was David Lloyd in Cardiff, I’d be there four or five times a week. I’m a big sauna guy, plunge pool, ice bath, just doing a bit of mobility between the matches.”

The diligence off the pitch has yielded rewards on it. Dwayne Peel, the Scarlets coach and a man respected for his rugby wit, has been a major influence. Peel describes Craig as an “old-school” lock who “gets round and does his work, with high carries, high ruck numbers.”

“I’ve progressed as a rugby player,” Craig goes on. “I probably came to Scarlets quite robotic. You have to do this, then this, then this at Gloucester. Now I feel like I’ve got more skills in my armoury, my ball-carrying has come on massively. I always had that ability to work in defence but it was difficult with my time at Gloucester interrupted by injuries. ‘Peely’ has done work on my attack and that has really helped.

“It was good to spend some extended time in the Scotland environment to let them know what you’re about. Not playing rugby in Scotland, that’s what I needed, to get that feel with everyone and hopefully you’ve already laid down foundations with the squad for future having been involved over summer.

“I’ve got a lot of good friends here in Wales now. The Welsh people are quite similar to Scots, maybe that’s helped a bit as well, a lot of similar values.”

Townsend would love to see Craig fit and motoring more often. There aren’t many Scottish locks with his skillset and age profile. Townsend’s premier pair, Richie Gray and Grant Gilchrist, are now 35 and 34. Jonny Gray has been out for an age and is looking to kickstart his career in Bordeaux. Scott Cummings is a talented mainstay, Sam Skinner an effective hybrid option, but Max Williamson and Alex Samuel are still learning their trade and the enormous Ewan Johnson playing in the second-tier ProD2.

Craig has signed a one-year extension at Scarlets, but there has been substantial interest from north of the border and a move would surely buttress his case for selection.

“If there’s potentially an opportunity up in Scotland then we’ll look into it,” he says. “We’ll look at the best pathway to represent Scotland as often as I can but at the minute, I’m really enjoying Scarlets. I’m hoping as a collective we have a much better year; we have made some smart signings and our young squad are a year older.

“I’ve spoken to a couple of coaches who are interested. There’s been a bit of chat but nothing set in stone.”