For Cheltenham North’s Scott Laird, rugby has not always been his first love. He didn’t gain an interest in the sport until he moved down to England from Scotland.
“I always played football and I didn’t really discover rugby until I moved to secondary school down here,” he says as he looks back on how it all started.
However, for Laird it was his friends that propelled his love for the game. “It was my mates really, they asked me to come and help one weekend, I played a game and it just started from there really.”
He believes that the game has changed a lot since he first got involved.
“It’s a lot more skill based now, but it is a lot faster, so it is hard to keep up with some people,” he admits.
Laird has multiple roles such as coaching the women’s team, membership secretary and playing for the men’s side.
The Scot is seeing a big shift in the women’s game, not just outside the club, but inside as well.
“We started off with a handful, since then every year we have snowballed… Eventually it will hit the ceiling, but how long it takes I don’t know.”
Laird got into coaching through his friend and his wife, before eventually being roped in himself.
“Before I knew it, I was down there very weekend more than she was!” he jokes.
Scott has plenty of memorable moments from rugby, a key highlight as a player being his last-minute try against Southam 10 years ago, though he admits that one of his proudest moments as a coach was earning promotion in his first season.
Aside from rugby Laird has also had success in other sports, playing football and cricket at county level.
When it came to football, it was a family-run affair,”Football was always in the family, so it just came as a natural thing,” he says.
“My parents were just looking at something for me to do sport wise whilst I was at primary school to keep me out of trouble, the cricket club was up the road from us so I signed up to cricket.”
However, things haven’t always been so bright for Cheltenham North player as he broke both of his shoulders a couple of seasons ago just as everything was coming together.
’’I was in the first team, I was on a good run of form, I was playing every game.” He says as he looks back on the effects of that injury.
“It was in a freak training accident they just both rotated out and back in, I could not catch or throw a ball for six months.”
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