Jamie Dobie spent the summer months training with Scotland before suffering the disappointment of being one of the last names to be cut from Gregor Townsend’s World Cup squad.
But far from feeling sorry for himself and regarding those months in the national camp as time wasted, the Glasgow scrum-half is convinced that he has returned to Scotstoun as a better player.
“I didn’t get in the final selection, but I felt that I had done everything I could have done,” said the 22-year-old, who missed out on selection in the final 33 to his Warriors team-mates George Horne and Ali Price and to Townsend’s current first choice, Ben White of Toulon. “I don’t have any regrets to look back on.
“You’re in camp all summer until they flew out to France, so 12 weeks or so. And I wasn’t looking back at opportunities that I didn’t take or where I wasn’t working hard enough. It was the coaches’ decision and I obviously don’t have the same experience as the boys who are out there at the moment. I have to respect that.
READ MORE: Ireland task will not impede Finn Russell's Scotland swagger
“As nice as it would have been to have made it to France, I’m still only 22. I’ve still got plenty of years left to play with the national team. But it was good to get that exposure with that extended period in camp. I feel like I’ve come back to Glasgow a better player.”
White looks set to be handed the No 9 jersey again in Saturday’s decisive pool game against Ireland, but even if that is the case, Dobie is sure that either Price or Horne could have a vital role to play off the bench. “That replacement role will just be as important in such a massive game,” he added.
“To get the win Scotland are going to have to play well for the full 80 minutes. In the Six Nations it was pretty close up until the 60-minute mark and then Ireland ran away with it.”
Dobie captained the Warriors for the first time in last week’s friendly win against Zebre. And, with Horne and Price due a rest after the World Cup, he could be getting a lot more game time over the early weeks of the new URC campaign too.
“There will be opportunities for me at the start of the season,” he said. “I need to really be making the most of them now.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here