KENNY LOGAN
It’s hard to coach your son. He wants to train on his own and I probably want to train on my own too, because he’ll tell me what I’m doing wrong. But we do talk about food, because he eats a lot of it, this lad. They get the food given to them, so they know what’s right. We were guessing. We used to just drink Iron Bru or Coke, and we probably abused ourselves a bit because we didn’t understand diet. But I do tell him that you have an off button, too. You need a couple of beers and your little treats in your downtime.
In terms of him getting injured, I think his mum worries more. I keep a cool head when he goes down. When I’ve had a broken hand or something, within five minutes you forget about it and you’re back in the game. It’s about a positive mindset. Plus, the game is safer than it’s ever been. The protection they’ve got for the young players compared with what we had… we were on war duty, because people would punch you from behind or stamp on your head.
I’m two years clear of prostate cancer. When I had that, Reuben was 16 or 17, and you think, ‘My dad died when I was 20 years old. I don’t want to be going anywhere.’ Being a dad, whatever’s happening, you’ve got to keep doing what you’re doing and hopefully everyone comes through okay. I was lucky in that.
If Reuben quit all sport tomorrow I’d say, ‘How can I help you? What’s next?’ I want him to be happy. They have more distractions and pressure now – having to be posting on social media and be almost an influencer outside of rugby. But he’s got his knowledge of how he needs to look and how he needs to feel, what helps mentally. He has the resources. His mental health and happiness are the most important things to me. The world is his oyster, but he needs to enjoy it.
Age: 52 Height: 6ft Caps for Scotland: 70 International
tries: 20 Bench PB: 155kg Fastest 50m sprint: 5.4 seconds Calories per day: ‘What’s
a calorie?’ Litres of water consumed per day: 3