By Duncan Wood
November 8 2002

I chatted this week to Ross Beattie, the Shoguns skipper, ahead of the league clash with his old club Newcastle. We talked about his time there, the season so far and how far he is down the comeback trail.

How are things progressing with the injury? When can we expect to see you back in the frame for selection?

My injury's coming on very, very well and I'm back running again. Hopefully, I've targetted playing or should I say being fit for selection in early December.

It gives me time. I need time. I need to get fit again having been off my feet for 6 weeks and it wouldn't be fair on me or the team if I were to go and play again without being fully fit.

Before the achilles problem, you'd just got back into the Scotland reckoning, are the lines of communication still open between yourself and the Scottish management?

Yeah, they've been ringing me up every week or so just to find out what's going on and how long it's going to take.

I have to keep telling them that I've just got to rest it. I'm going to miss these internationals, I think the last one is in the first week of December.

I just have to bide my time and hopefully play well here and see what happens for the 6 Nations and from then on.

Despite the injury, can you still get much input into team training as the club captain?

Yes, I can have quite a considerable influence. The last couple of weeks I've tried to step back a little bit just because I feel I need to concentrate a little bit more on myself and get myself bit.

As you can imagine, it can get quite stressful at times with the position that we're in but I've stepped back a little and let Garath do a bit more of what he's been doing. He's been doing really well at it.

I'm still involved with Pete a lot and we talk through things.

And what's your role on matchdays as the club skipper?

It's very difficult for me really because I love rugby so much that I could really bore people talking about it! So, I have to be careful who I talk to before games.

I know Garath doesn't like it. He doesn't like being talked to about rugby a lot following matches - he's quite a unique character, he just kind of relaxes and then goes out and plays straightaway. I haven't met anyone like him before, anyone who can do that.

Other than that, I just try and calm them down and chat to them and then, during the game, I like to be on the sideline and have a bit of say in things and a chat to people.

Are you a good spectator?

No. I'm terrible and I have to apologise to any supporters that have stood near me because my language isn't the best during the game. I'm terrible at watching - when things go well it's great but when things go badly I just can't stand it, it annoys me.

We play your former club Newcastle on Sunday. Born in Kent, what led to you signing for Newcastle?

I was born in Kent and lived there for 2 ½ or 3 years and then actually moved to Bolton near Manchester. I then went to school Yorkshire so most of my life was spent up north and I went straight from school to Northumbria University and I was with Newcastle from the age of 18 onwards really.

And what was the highlight of your time there?

I've got some great memories. I remember making my debut, my senior debut against the World XV at Twickenham which was quite a nice experience!

The game I enjoyed the most was, ironically, the game I broke my neck in which sounds ridiculous. It was the semi final against Sale which was actually the last game I played for Newcastle.

It's not just the playing but the people who were there as well. And they're not there now. Some amazing people like Inga Tuigamala, Alan Tait, Pat Lam and Dean Ryan when he was playing. Just great names and great people who were a privilege to be around and learn things from.

With the benefit of your insider knowledge, who will be the danger men on Sunday?

It's an interesting one because there are a few guys out. Stuart Grimes is a fantastic player but he's away. And also Jonny's away, the main strike force of their team.

But Epi Taione, I think he's playing again on the wing. He's just a handful. He's a confidence player. If he starts the game confidently and not making mistakes then you have to watch him all day.

I respect Richard Arnold massively. If he's fit, I think he's got a sore achilles like me, he's a very hard man and, amongst a pack of relative youngsters and guys who haven't done that much in the game yet, he's the hard man of that pack and he really drives them forward. We need to stop him as well.

They've got pace to burn as well on the wings. Mike Stephenson is another confidence player. He's very quick and very elusive and, if you give these guys space, they love to run around.

How about Earl Va'a?

It's funny but I don't know too much about that. I was up there at the weekend and saw some of the guys but I didn't know about that or whether they're going to play him.

I tried to get on the phone yesterday but they weren't going to tell me! Newcastle could put him straight in there but I know they've been training with a guy called Phil Godman, who's a young Scottish lad, playing at 10.

Finally, any prediction?

I hate giving predictions. I just think that it's about time that we had a performance that we can really be proud of. We've shown it in glimpses against Montferrand and Leicester and they all seem to be home games.

Then we go away and just seem to lack a little bit of the cutting edge that we've had the week before. We're really annoyed at the way we performed against Sale and we've got the Argentinians back as well.

Hopefully, if they're playing, they'll give us the directions that was possibly lacking at the weekend. They're very vocal on the field and maybe that was missing a little bit and hopefully we'll come out of this with a victory. 5 points would be fantastic.