ANY club has its core of loyal servants, players who turn out for the club week in, week out often without getting the plaudits and adulation that some of their high-flying colleagues get.
Nobody exemplifies this for Glasgow Warriors better than Pat MacArthur, who has just played his 150th game for the club and is showing no sign of wanting to stop there.
He has been there through the bad times, when they were struggling, but signed his first full-time contract in the season they made their breakthrough into the play-offs and has been a regular ever since.
“We have been very successful for a long time and we all enjoy winning,” he said.
Read more: Returning Edinburgh prop Alasdair Dickinson may be a saviour for Scotland squad
“When we don’t win, that hurts us badly. Winning is everything for us and looking at the game coming [against Newport Gwent Dragons tomorrow afternoon], we are going to have to make sure that we know where we are going and how we are going to get there.”
After three defeats on the trot while the current internationals are away, the truth is that Glasgow have probably gone through Last Chance Saloon as far as the end-of-season play offs are concerned and have entered Desperation Street.
By the time you allow for Ulster’s game in hand against Zebre, they are 12 points off the final play-off spot with six games left including visits to Dublin and Limerick. Even to dream of rescuing the season, they have to grab every point.
“We know that,” said MacArthur. “That is why when we turned up on Monday, the attitude was ‘this is what we have to do, we are up against it’.
Read more: Returning Edinburgh prop Alasdair Dickinson may be a saviour for Scotland squad
“We know how important it is that this team brings back the goods so that when the boys come back from the Six Nations we are already going well, [and] when we come to the big push at the end of the season we are already going well and not fighting such an uphill battle.
“I never doubt the players we have and the ethos of hard work. We can go on winning runs. It has been disappointing that we have not picked up wins in the last few games but when the pressure is on, that is when you step up.”
Though he is excited by the young talent emerging in the club, MacArthur knows it is up to senior players like him to turn things round in a rush.
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