Warriors stalwart Dempsey is fit again at last and ready
to roar

Jack Dempsey spoke so candidly back in March about the state of Scottish rugby that, when he subsequently missed the next match with an injury, the joke doing the rounds was that someone inside Murrayfield must have nobbled the Scotland forward to try to keep him quiet.

Six months later, however, and Jack’s back and, thankfully, still speaking as honestly and as passionately as before. 

A troubling hamstring problem was the reason he disappeared after playing the entirety of Scotland’s Six Nations win over Wales, a frustrating period that not only saw him miss the final match away to France but also Glasgow’s season run-in, the Scotland summer tour to New Zealand and Fiji plus any prospect of him becoming a British and Irish Lion.

Several times in that spell it looked as if the 31-year-old was closing in on a comeback only for it to be repeatedly postponed and then abandoned.

Given his age and the fact it is an issue that has troubled him throughout his career, the decision was taken to let his body heal at its own pace, rather than pushing ahead with further surgery. 

Heading into the start of another season, Dempsey believes it was the right course of action.

‘It was a weird one,” he admits. “Essentially it was [a case of] surgery or no surgery and if I got the surgery it would have been the same time out. So obviously we opted to go conservative but essentially I came back at the same time.

‘It’s just a really complicated one. I was out for pretty much two years with it in my early 20s and I’ve had significant surgery on it before. It’s like you’re dealing with the old ghosts as well. It’s never going to be fully back to what it was.

‘But your body adapts and strengthens in other ways to deal with it. So, it was more as we restarted that rehab again, you’ve got to kind of conquer all those other things which maybe if you didn’t go through earlier you might have gone through faster.

‘We got to the point where it was for the betterment of my mid to long term future to not rush back and get emotional about coming back for a quarter final against the Stormers and stuff, not being 100 percent and then risking things. Or trying to get back for a summer tour, not being 100 percent when they can give other guys a go kind of thing.

‘I can sit here now, look back and think it was the smartest thing to do. Obviously you never know with surgery if it would have been better or worse but I’m happy with how it’s gone.’

Dempsey had been expected to feature in that Six Nations denouement in Paris having not shown any sign of picking up a knock a week earlier against Wales. But the unseen damage had been done at Murrayfield.

‘Thirty minutes into the Wales game I felt something in there. I had an old surgery on it, so there is scar tissue and every now and then it will flare up. In the heat of a Test match, with the adrenaline and everything, you don’t think too much about it, so I played on and then just about the first play of the second half, 41 minutes in, I felt it go again.

‘I played the rest of the game, we got the win and there was nothing in the data in terms of GPS and stuff. No red flags. So, we trained the first couple of days before France, we were getting ready to go to Paris and it just didn’t really turn the corner. On the Thursday morning, we made a decision that it wasn’t good to go.’

It will forever remain a hypothetical whether Dempsey would have made the British and Irish Lions squad for their summer tour to his homeland before picking up his injury but it still rankles that he didn’t get the chance to earn his spot.

‘That was obviously one of the more disappointing things. You’re looking at that Six Nations with that one extra game against France, trying to put your hand up and build a campaign [to be selected]. I had just come back from my shoulder as well which was against the Springboks.

‘It was definitely tough, seeing Nonz and Shuggy [Sione Tuipulotu and Huw Jones] get announced there having played with them a lot at both levels and knowing their backgrounds. I ended up just watching as a fan as they were playing against a team I used to play for and teams I used to play against. I really enjoyed that.’

Franco Smith recently extended his contract at Glasgow after months of speculation that he might be considering a fresh challenge after three years at Scotstoun and Dempsey believes it’s a smart investment in the head coach’s talents.

‘I know there’s been chatter around the last six months about Franco, where he’s going, all these teams being rumoured,” acknowledged Dempsey, refreshingly not pretending to be unaware of what’s been going on.

‘But from a Glasgow point of view, it’s good just to have him in the building. That’s the main thing, to have him around the boys. Having that consistency in there is for the betterment of Scottish rugby as well.

‘The development, not chopping and changing. Or a coach comes in, does a good job, gets bought out by someone else, and then f***s off and then we’ve got to get someone else in. It’s real mature decision making for the long term of Scottish rugby.’

Warriors begin their URC campaign at home to the Sharks on Friday night and Dempsey seems in a mood to make up for lost time.

‘We’re very short term focused,’ he reveals. ‘That’s one thing Franco’s done. When he first started laying down the scaffolds for this pre-season it was a first five game focus, leading into autumn.

‘I think sometimes you can get caught looking at the European pool or the 1872 Cup. That’s where we reflect on last year, a few of those games where we slipped up: Ospreys at home, Benetton, where we should have won. 

'We shot ourselves in the foot, maybe looking too far ahead. We could have used those points on the log and would have finished first or second. Then you get the home semi.

‘Two years in a row, we finished fourth after being second all year. So if we can bank these points early while also getting new boys blooded… We’ve got a new defence coach so there are going to be a few hiccups here and there, but if you can get those learnings while you’re winning and banking points, that’s going to help us in the long run.’