Dempsey dials in on Murrayfield magic

EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND - NOVEMBER 02: Scotland's Jack Dempsey in action during The Famous Grouse Nations Series match between Scotland and Fiji at Scottish Gas Murrayfield, on November 02, 2024, in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

His first conscious thought of the desire for Scotland to win came in the closing stages of that encounter, whereby the Wallabies held on for a gut-punching 16-15 victory as Blair Kinghorn’s last-gasp penalty effort skewed narrowly off target.

“The only thing in that realm was when Blair was lining up the kick to win the game at the very end, I was just thinking ‘what a way to win on debut against my old team’,” recalled Jack.

Result aside, Dempsey’s Scotland debut was a moment he will forever cherish, because of the opposition but also having experienced the magic of Murrayfield when on tour a few years previous as a junior member of the Australian touring party a few years earlier.

Pictured: Jack leading the charge in tackling Australia’s Hunter Paisami, 2022.

On that 2022 Scotland bow and previous taste of the national stadium, he said: “It sticks out for various reasons. It was a weird moment, a couple of days before the game I went out for dinner with a few of the Wallabies boys, and then fast forward a couple of days and I’m running onto the field and seeing them across from me; looking up from the scrum and seeing Hoops [Michael Hooper] on the other side.

“A lot of it is lost in the moment, you think about pre-game or the night before. But I’m not 19, 20 years old anymore where everything’s brand new. I’ve played that many games in my career where you do fall into autopilot a bit.

“The first time I came to Murrayfield was 2016 with the Wallabies as a development player, maybe 20 or 21. I was told by [head coach] Michael Cheika at the time that we weren’t going to play, it was a chance to train and then 2017 would be our year.

“So, a five-week tour to Twickenham, Murrayfield, Cardiff, Dublin and Paris, and we got to see all these traditional Six Nations teams, stadiums, anthems for the first time and I walked away from especially Murrayfield thinking ‘that’s the best atmosphere I’ve ever seen.

Pictured: Jack Dempsey lining up for the anthems ahead of his debut against Australia, 2022.

“You get rolled in through the bagpipes, everyone cheering, the Flower of Scotland comes on and we all know the famous aura that brings. In that moment I never thought I’d be here 10 years later and play for Scotland, and now I look at the handful of memories I’ve got of playing here.”

Dempsey is primed for international duty once more having been given the summer off on the back of his United Rugby Championship-winning exploits with Glasgow Warriors in June. The break allowed him to go home to Australia and get some down time, as he explained: “Obviously, we got the win and I knew for months that I wasn’t going to tour for summer. So, they gave me a chance to plan to get back home, which I haven’t been back properly since I moved over here. So I got back there, had a couple weddings there, and caught up with family stuff, which is good, just getting that down time, just the physical rest on the back of a World Cup year, and that mental rest as well.

“You know, the negative is it’s obviously winter there when it’s summer over here. So you’ve got to kind of have that trade-off. It’s not like I’m going back and it’s mid-summer in Sydney and mill around the beaches and stuff like that.

“I had a few weddings to go to and family to catch up with. So you jam pack your days. It’s not really a holiday in terms of just resting and relaxing  in the sun. But it was just good to catch up with simple things, like my dogs and my brother, go to cafes around my neighbourhood, stuff like that.

“I left my dog when I moved, So I gave mum and dad my beagle, Archie. That was hard. But it was one of those things, you know, just the nature of the job and he spent a lot of time with Mum and Dad anyway. And when the opportunity came to come over to Glasgow, what, four years ago now, his life would have just been a lot different.

“I don’t want to offend the Scottish people, but his life would have been better staying in Sydney!

“It was kind of the opposite to any kind of break I’d had before, in terms of, say, you book somewhere for a couple weeks or a week with some sun and sand and it was more running around Sydney, the big city, catching up with people with nights out, so bit different.

“But, you know, then I got back over to Europe for Jamie Bhatti’s wedding in Portugal, got a bit of sun before getting into preseason with Franco [Smith, Glasgow Warriors head coach].

Raring to go, you might say, ahead of another bumper campaign that has already started well for Warriors, as they sit second in the URC standings after six matches. With four Autumn Test matches to negotiate in the immediacy, Jack has the maturity and experience to embrace such a programme.

“I’m at the stage now of my career when I’m conscious of how long I might have left, and so my motivation now is playing every game as if it’s my last,” he said.

“I think Flower of Scotland is a good reminder of that, because the anthem is a physical point where you have that time to yourself, a mixture of being with your brothers arm in arm, but also with yourself in a quiet stadium as the bagpipes stop, and the second chorus starts. You are quite lonely in that moment, with your thoughts, before the chaos begins.

“I take that moment for myself for what could be my last game and that puts me in the right mindset.”

When the anthem is played at Scottish Gas Murrayfield, rest assured that Jack Dempsey is steeling himself for another chance to represent Scotland with the vim and vigour with which we all associate him.

Pictured: Jack with fellow Scotland and Glasgow Warriors teammates Tom Jordan and Rory Darge after beating Fiji, 2 November 2024.