Chris Paterson – Keeping An Eye On Scottish Rugby

From Calcutta Cup victories to promotion from one of Scotland’s leagues; from talking about ‘that’ try in 1990 to celebrating an incredible growth in playing numbers, Chris Paterson has been a man on a mission.Since retiring from the professional game, Paterson, Scotland’s cap and points’ record-holder, has not only been coaching the next generation of international players, but has also been looking in to what really makes the game of rugby tick.The core values of the sport are at the heart of a new series of videos, presented by Chris for www.scottishrugby.orgChris said: “Respect, leadership, achievement, engagement and enjoyment are values that run throughout the game from the very smallest clubs to the pro-clubs and beyond to the national team.”They are things that have been with me throughout my career.For this series, we went back to my old club, Gala, and we found that those values that I grew up with are still there to this day. It’s the same, no matter which club you go to in Scotland.”Some of the people we’ve met while making these films really embody the values of Scottish rugby and it was a pleasure to talk to them in depth and get a real understanding of how they view these values and how they are an important part of their clubs.”Chris travelled across the country and met players, coaches, and former stars of the game . . . from the Calcutta Cup winning captain Andy Nicol to Stuart Ross, a firefighter from Helensburgh.Stuart’s picture is up on a wall at Murrayfield as it captures a moment of pure joy at winning the league with his best mates at Hillhead/Jordanhill RFC.Chris also speaks to Megan Gaffney, who recently represented Great Britain at sevens, as well as Tony Stanger and Andy Jackson, who has overseen a phenomenal growth in player numbers at Bishopton RFC in the west of Scotland.Mossy even goes back to Netherdale to catch up with the man who coached him at under-18 level and reminds Chris about respect!Chris said: “What I found really interesting during this process is that everyone had a different take on what each value meant for them.”When talking about engagement, for example, Matt Scott (of Edinburgh Rugby and Scotland) was quick to remind me that I had once presented him with a prize while he was at primary school!”But it’s a moment he remembers and he’s now in that position himself, doing that kind of work with children and playing an important role in how they engage with the game.I’d be really interested in carrying on this process and meeting more clubs, more players and really putting together a picture of how the game looks across the whole country.Chris’s Video Values will be released on a weekly basis in the run-up to the EMC Tests in November and will cover the five core values of the game in Scotland: RespectLeadershipAchievementEngagementEnjoymentYou can watch a teaser showing highlights from all five videos on YouTube.