Matt Fagerson revealed how he and brother Zander received to spend a “special” day with their devoted mother and father final week as they savoured the primary time that they had each performed for Scotland in the identical match at a World Cup.
The siblings featured in final Sunday’s 18-3 defeat by South Africa in Marseille.
Prop Zander, who had performed on the earlier World Cup, was on for the primary 55 minutes at Stade Velodrome and back-rower Matt, who missed out on choice for the 2019 showpiece in Japan, was launched from the bench within the sixty fourth minute.
Although the outcome didn’t go as deliberate, the match held apparent sentimental worth for the Fagerson household, and the brothers – two of 5 siblings – received to savour it with their mother and father Gwendolyn and Jonathan because the workforce got some down time at the beginning of final week.
“It was amazing, our parents came through to Antibes (near the team’s World Cup base in the south of France) and me and Zander spent the day with them,” Matt instructed the PA information company.
“It was really nice. We went for ice cream, had some food, went to the beach. They’re a huge part of why we do what we do and it was really special to have them out here and spend that time with them.
“We’re a very sporty family. Our little sister is in the Scotland hockey squad, one of our brothers ran a marathon the other day and our other brother is a DJ so everybody’s pretty busy at the moment.
“Our parents are incredibly proud of us and to be able to spend a couple of days with them out here was really special.”
At this time 4 years in the past, Matt was at residence, successfully on standby, after agonisingly lacking out on choice for the squad.
The Glasgow back-rower has a good suggestion, subsequently, of the vary of feelings hooker Stuart McInally could have gone by means of after discovering himself in the same place over the previous month earlier than getting the decision to hitch the squad on Wednesday after Dave Cherry withdrew with concussion after he banged his head when slipping on the steps on the workforce resort final Monday.
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“We’re all gutted for Dave,” mentioned Fagerson. “It was a terrible accident that happened and we’re all behind him but Rambo (McInally) was unfortunate not to make the squad in the first place. We have some quality hookers but Rambo’s a quality player and we’re stoked to have him back in the squad.
“In 2019, I had about a week to get over it and then I was back in with the Glasgow boys doing pre-season.
“The message to all the boys in that situation is to keep fit because things like this happen, injuries happen.
“It needs the whole squad buy-in. Injuries happen in our sport so everyone should try to stay fit because if you get the call to come out you have to make the most of it and integrate back into the team.
“Rambo has come back in great shape, he’s ready to hit the ground running.
“It’s definitely a weird old time for him. It was obviously really tough for him when he didn’t make the squad and he had to get over that but it’s a fairytale that he gets to come out here and hopefully get that 50th cap (he is currently on 49).”
After dropping to South Africa, Scotland know they need to win all three of their remaining pool matches in opposition to Tonga, Romania and Ireland. They will most likely require bonus factors from their subsequent two outings to present themselves a chance to qualify for the quarter-finals after they go into their October showdown with the Irish in Paris.
“We’ve got an uphill battle now but we’ve got a lot of belief in the squad so we’re looking forward to it,” mentioned Fagerson.
“We’re going to have to put our best foot forward against Tonga on Sunday and then hopefully get a big finish against Ireland.
“If you start looking for bonus points too early in a game you can sometimes miss the beat in the first half but I think we will probably need bonus points so we’ll be looking to up the scoreline.
“We’re just focusing on Tonga just now and trying to start the game really well.”
