A SHOCK Scotland call-up on Monday; first tries of the season on Saturday. Dougie Fife was looking so happy after his side had beaten Benetton Treviso he could probably have floated all the way back to Scotland on Cloud Nine and saved his club a plane fare.
What a turnaround in fortune it has been for the wing. Eighteen months ago his future looked grim when he was axed from the Edinburgh squad under former coach Alan Solomons. He turned his attention to Sevens, winning the player of the match prize when Scotland won their first World Series tournament in London just two weeks after hearing about his club bombshell.
A year ago he moved on to a full-time Sevens contract, but this season it has been 15s that has been dominating his thinking again, five games for Edinburgh despite a mid-season injury and doing well enough to harbour hopes of adding to the six Scotland caps he has already won.
"I feel I am really starting to enjoy my 15s again," he said. "The Scotland call – I was certainly not expecting it. When I got the call from Gregor [Townsend, the Scotland head coach], it was a bit of a shock. It is good being back in the mix, I am really looking forward to the camp.
"It does muddle my future a bit. At the moment I am still on a Sevens contract. The boys are in Cape Town at the moment playing in a tournament but the future has yet to be decided. Obviously the Scotland stuff is the priority, Scotland 15s is where every player wants to be and I have that chance. I aim to make the most of it."
To be fair, he fully accepts the tries were more a case of finishing the good work done inside him particularly by Blair Kinghorn, the full back, but that hardly dampened the joyful feeling from getting over the line again.
He feels it is not just his own personal fortunes that are back on the rise again. After a period in the doldrums, he can see changes in the Edinburgh set up and thinks they are starting to work.
"It has changed a lot, it feels a lot more professional," he said. "We are in on Sundays, it just feels like a tighter squad. The boys are really working hard for each other, it is really refreshing to be back in it.
"I have been away, so maybe I notice the difference more than the boys who were here all the way through. I think Cockers [Richard Cockerill, the head coach] coming in has been brilliant. I am really enjoying it, I am back to enjoying my rugby it is a lot more fun when we play like that and I hope there is a lot more to come."
They have shown they can win both ways. The week before, in Russia, the forwards did the the bulk of the scoring; in Treviso it was the backs who ran in the tries. It all helps build vital confidence.
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