Stuart McInally: Scotland hooker 'reborn at revitalised Edinburgh'

Stuart McInally remembers how he felt a year ago, standing on the touchline with the ball held aloft, the knot in his stomach tightening as he peered down the gauntlet of the line-out - a formidable man and a fine rugby player ravaged by exhaustion and fear.

He was spent. He was nervous. He'd done all his work - his throwing drills, his fitness, his extra weights - but would it pay off? Was he going to hit his jumper? Would he let the team down?

This was how the campaign unfolded for the converted hooker, drowning in an Edinburgh side that limped through yet another torturous season. McInally was the club's co-captain, but made only six starts.

"I knew moving to hooker was going to be a bit of a transition, and there were going to be times where I was going to have to take a back seat, but there were certainly times where I was questioning whether it was the right move," the former back-row says.

"Whenever I played I was always just so tired. I would make a tackle and I would get up and feel it in my lungs, feel it in my legs.

McInally used to struggle with his line-out throwing, but has thrived this season

"This year, getting a full pre-season, I remember making a tackle in the [pre-season] Sale game and I wasn't knackered after it. I'd forgotten what that felt like to make a tackle and get up and keep running. That was a big moment where I realised how much I'd missed having a big block of conditioning.

"I was so proud to be named captain - that was a massive thing for me - and my expectation on how we were going to do as a club, and how I felt I was going to do, versus the reality, was so different.

"I really struggled with a lot. I'm ambitious. I knew what I wanted to get out of rugby. I put a lot of pressure on myself."

'Don't rely on rugby to make you happy'

That season was the nadir for Edinburgh, coach-less and flailing by the end. Ninth in the Pro12. A club-record losing streak. The brutal culmination of years of malaise, the seventh in a row where they had failed to place higher than eighth in the league.

It wounded McInally, born and bred in the city, but from the hurt came precious lessons about himself and his sport.

"Don't rely on rugby to make you happy," he says.

"There's nothing better than winning as part of a team, but if you rely on rugby to keep you happy in life, you can run into bother. I've seen it happen.

"Some players feel they don't have time to do anything else, to study or anything like that. It's the boys who take rugby home with them all the time. You have to do some work at home but you have to have other things going on in your life.

McInally endured a tough couple of seasons with Edinburgh after switching from back-row to hooker

"It's something I learned as I went through the tough times. Rugby's not all bells and whistles. People look at rugby and think it's the best job in the world, and people see you and say, 'what's he got to be upset about?'

"But actually, if you're ambitious and you want to achieve stuff and things aren't going your way, it's the worst job. You can go to a pretty dark place."

'If you mess up, you do it again'

McInally has come roaring out of the darkness - a ball-carrying, havoc-wreaking beast unleashed for Edinburgh in the Pro14 and Scotland in the autumn Tests and Six Nations.

Thrusting him forth, Richard Cockerill. In his first year as Edinburgh head coach, he has torn up the "it'll do" culture that besieged Edinburgh. The softness and accepting of mediocrity is gone.

Cockerill hired a specialist throwing coach and McInally's set-piece anxieties have evaporated.

The bullish former Leicester hooker and head coach has propelled Edinburgh to within a point of a first league play-off, with one round of fixtures remaining.

McInally has thrived under the tutelage and discipline instilled by Richard Cockerill (left)

"I used to be very much 'it'll be alright on the night'," McInally says. "If I missed a line-out, 'oh, I'll get back in the game, it's fine'.

"That's one thing that Cockers doesn't let you get away with. If you mess up, you do it again. From session number one at the start of the year to today. I missed a line-out today, and he was like, 'can we let Rambo [McInally] throw properly, please?'

"It's not aggressive, it's just like, 'come on, I'm not letting you off with that'.

"With his leadership, you can never let anything slide. A prime example is turning up on time. Of course you turn up on time, that's your job, but if you're a minute late, does it really matter?

"Maybe that's where we got caught last year. Minute late here, minute late there - the session's still going to go ahead.

"Whereas he's like, 'if the session starts at nine and you turn up at a minute past, I can't trust you. If you can't even turn up when we're asking you to, I can't trust you to make a tackle.'

McInally played in all eight Tests for Scotland this season, and was superb in the win over England

"It shows the knock-on effect of every little thing - why it's important to turn up on time, why it's important to wear the right kit.

"Little things that were ignored before are never ignored now. That's exactly what we need. I see a huge difference in that, and how hungry the boys are to do well."

'I'd like us to win the Pro14 and compete in Europe'

The vibe around Edinburgh is vehemently different to what went before and goes deeper than simply winning matches. Players are happier, imbued by Cockerill with self-belief and invigorated by the knowledge that if they give their lot in training, the coach is fair-minded enough to pitch them in.

What they are not used to yet is pressure. Going toe-to-toe against the European prize fighters with knockout rugby on the line is a new challenge. Glasgow Warriors arrive in the capital on Saturday for the 1872 Cup decider and Edinburgh, as things stand, need a point from the derby to guarantee their play-off berth.

"Cockers keeps reminding us, 'this is why we work hard, this is why we play rugby'," McInally says.

"If you're nervous and under pressure, that's good. It's because you're in a position where you can go somewhere.

"We're not going to become a team that wins championships overnight, but the more we have games like this week where we have to win, the more we'll learn and become accustomed to it.

McInally was man of the match when Edinburgh beat Glasgow at Murrayfield in December

"There's real potential for growth as well. It's not just that we're trying to win this week then next week; it's trying to grow a club that can be successful, and that's what's most exciting."

What, then, does Edinburgh's summit look like?

"I would like us to win the Pro14 and be competing in Europe as a force," adds McInally.

"In the past it's been, 'it's only Edinburgh'. Teams would target us for not only a win away from home, but a bonus point as well.

"We've got away from that now. If we've achieved this in one year, what could we achieve in three or four?"

McInally and Edinburgh have emerged from the darkness. A player reborn at a club revitalised.

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