Scots Lion Sutherland finally in a good place again

Rory Sutherland is adamant he can still perform a starting role for Scotland as the embattled former British and Irish Lion outlined his renewed sense of contentment on and off the field.

Rory Sutherland is adamant he can still perform a starting role for Scotland as the embattled former British and Irish Lion outlined his renewed sense of contentment on and off the field.

After recovering from a career-threatening groin injury sustained in 2016, the 32-year-old established himself as Scotland's first-choice loosehead for both the 2020 and 2021 Six Nations campaigns and then went on to start for the Lions in the first test of the series against South Africa in July 2021.

Sutherland has since started only six matches for Scotland, with the majority of the 22 caps he has added coming off the bench.

A big factor has been the impressive form of Pierre Schoeman, but the Glasgow forward made a big impact as he came on for the last half-hour to help the Scots close out a 31-19 win at home to Italy last Saturday.

Sutherland's Scotland situation has not been helped by the fact he has struggled for sustained momentum at club level. Having been at Edinburgh for seven years, he moved to Worcester in 2021, only to see that move turn sour when his contract was terminated after they entered administration a year later.

Then there was a stint in Ulster in early 2023 before he spoke of the "stress" of being at the World Cup in France later that year without having a contract lined up for the 2023-24 campaign.

The Hawick-born forward eventually landed a move to Top 14 side Oyonnax but was generally restricted to a substitute role before returning to Scotland last summer to join Glasgow, where he has found himself "in a good place".

"All the sort of things that had happened in the past couple of years leading up to this year, I think it's tough going somewhere when your hand's forced, as opposed to you putting your hand up and saying, 'right, I want to move now'.

"Going to Ulster, it was a great experience getting to go out there, experience how they train, experiencing their mindset around winning, I think that was fantastic for me.

"And going to the World Cup, there was that added stress, I went there without a contract, so there was a lot of pressure on me to perform and also stay fit to try and get a contract.

"And going out to France, I think it was a great experience for me, taking myself out of my comfort zone again, trying to learn a new language.

"I think all those bits have made me not only a better player, but a better person and I think I'm in a really good place now at Glasgow. My family are back in Scotland and they're settled, they have stability, the kids are enjoying it at school. So, yeah, I'm in a good place."