HE has a famous name, but can Adam Hastings live up to it? That's the question: the Hastings label – a blessing or a curse? Glasgow Warriors fans will get a hint of the answer tonight when he makes his first club start against the Southern Kings.
Son of Gavin, the Scotland and British & Irish Lions captain back in the 1990s, nephew of Scott, another of the game's greats, he has a huge pedigree to sustain him after moving back north over the summer after launching his career at Bath.
It has been a stuttering start. He got a good run of games in the pre-season matches and must have thought he was set to extend it when he was called off the bench early in the opening PRO14 match in Connacht – only to collect a stud across the leg that slashed it wide open and put him out of action for the next few weeks.
Now he is getting his chance in a match that, on paper, should be the most comfortable of the season for Glasgow. If he does well, he may still miss out on next week's game – the league revenge mission against Leinster – but would be close to a certainty for the one after that against the Ospreys when both Finn Russell and Peter Horne are likely to be on Scotland duty.
"That played into the thinking [in selecting him}," Dave Rennie, the head coach, explained. "We had 19 guys named and that Scotland squad and you can add a few injuries to that. We’ve got to go deep with our squad over the next month. This is the chance for Adam and George [Horne at scrum half] to lay claim to those positions.
"He [Hastings] really impressed us in pre-season. He has a great work ethic. We asked him to make some changes and he has gone back to club rugby and done that. He has a good skill set. He has the ability to challenge defences and make space for others. He’s got a pretty solid kicking game and he is brave.
"In terms of managing a game he has made improvements in that area and hopefully will see evidence of that.
"They’re both [Hastings and Horne] good players, and they’ve both got a lot of growth in their game to come. We’re really comfortable that they’ll deliver, and it’s important that they do because there’s a chance for them to play a fair bit of footie for us this season."
For Hastings, the famous family background has not really been too much of a distraction. As he pointed out in pre-season, his Dad can give him pointers on handling pressure and things like that, but the game has changed so much since it went professional that there is a limit to how much help he can be.
Still, there is a weight of expectation around him. Tonight will go a long way to showing him, his family and the rest of Scotland whether he has what it takes to live up to all that.
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