Pre-Season Diaries | Tom Jordan | Week One

• 1 Sep 2023
• Interviews

Back in the building and ready to work - in the first of our pre-season series, let TJ take you through the summer break and week one...

It’s been a bit of a different pre-season this year – with the later start to the season because of the Rugby World Cup, we’ve had a bit of a longer break and some more time off, which I’d say has definitely been good for everyone.

Last season was a long one and we were disappointed with how it finished, so it was definitely good to get a break, reset and refresh and just have a bit of time to take a step back and reflect on the season. We had some really good performances and some great rugby, and everyone’s hungry to come in and push us on to the next level.

I went back to New Zealand for about seven weeks over the summer, which was really great. I hadn’t been home in a good two years or so, so to catch up with all my family and close friends was exactly what was needed. I still had a couple of weeks off when I came back to Scotland, too, so I sort of just mooched around really! I saw a few mates down south, went for a bit of a holiday with my missus, and then it’s been back in here this week ready to rip in.

Everyone’s come back in good shape, which you love to see. Guys have been hitting personal bests or getting close to PBs, which is great for week one of pre-season. The coaches put a lot of faith in us by giving us that length of time off, and everyone so far seems to be repaying that faith by being in good shape and ready to get down to work. We’ve got the bronco done, boys are enjoying themselves and we’re all enjoying getting back into some contact too.

The bronco… I felt pretty fit, which is always good! It’s a much better feeling when you’re not totally dying in the middle of it! Everyone looked like they got a pretty good score, and all of the strength and conditioning staff were pretty pleased with where we were starting out.

I seem to keep getting paired up with Oli Kebble in contact drills somehow, he’s been hitting me pretty hard on the pads! Stafford [McDowall], too, has come back from Scotland camp looking super fit and ready to have another big season for us. Even in week one you can see the hunger and energy from boys across the board, and everyone looks pretty sharp.

It’s been awesome to see the boys carving it up on the international stage, too – we’ve been tuning in most weekends to cheer them on, all the Scotland boys as well as big Nonz [Sione Vailanu] with Tonga and then Lucio[Sordoni] with Argentina too. We’re all excited to see them all do their thing out in France and we’ll all be cheering them on from ‘sunny’ Glasgow!