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Article courtesy of GH Media
Aberdeen Grammar Rugby's teenage winger Cole Crawford recently returned from Oman where he was representing the Bahrain national sevens team in the Asia Rugby Emirates Sevens Trophy.
Having lived in Bahrain from the age of around 10 until this summer, the speedster has been lucky enough to represent the country at the same event twice now.
He was involved last year when it was held in Nepal and then, this time around, between October 25 and 26 in Muscat.
“In terms of playing for the Bahrain national sevens team, the opportunity came up for the first time last year when I went to the same tournament,” 18-year-old Crawford said.
“Having lived and playing rugby in Bahrain for a large part of my life I didn’t have to think twice about playing for the national team and jumped at the opportunity.
“It was a really good experience and I loved the Asia Rugby Emirates Sevens Trophy this year too.
“I spent the first six years of my life here in Scotland and then my family moved out to Saudi Arabia for a couple of years. We then moved to Bahrain and I was there until I turned 18.
“My rugby journey started when I was six in Saudi and carried through via the Bahrain Rugby Club until I joined Grammar.”
In this year’s tournament, Bahrain and Crawford defeated Iran 21-19 and Iraq 45-0 to top their pool, but then, in the Cup quarter-finals, they were edged out by Afghanistan 7-5.
That put them into a battle for fifth place and they managed to regroup and finish fifth thanks to wins over Qatar 28-5 and Jordan 10-7. Kazakhstan were the overall champions.
How did Crawford’s rugby journey take him from Bahrain to Rubislaw and Arnold Clark National Three action a few months ago then?
“The road to Grammar was a bit of an odd one, but I am very glad I am with the club now,” the player, who works for Worldwide Oilfield Machine away from the pitch, explained.
“I moved back to Scotland in the summer and was keen to keep my rugby going so I searched online to find a team.
“I then emailed a couple of clubs and Grammar replied first so I went to training that day and after that session they simply said ‘see you on Thursday at the next training session’ and I didn’t look back.
“It’s been fantastic to be at the club so far and a real privilege to play for Grammar. Within the senior squad there are a great bunch of boys and some great players and they are all so encouraging and want me to enjoy my rugby and be the best version of myself.
“As for the season so far, well we’ve had a look at the stats to see where we’ve gone wrong at times and we have identified what we need to improve.
“Before the league returns on November 22 we are sitting third in the standings and have won five from eight, but we believe there is a lot more to come from us.
“Hopefully for the rest of the season we can keep improving as a team and push for the top spot in the league and do well in the National League Cup.”
And it is National League Cup action that will be at Rubislaw this coming Saturday when Grammar take on National Three leaders Preston Lodge in a tasty looking second round tie.
* A version of this article first appeared in The Press and Journal on Tuesday *