For a man who spends a significant amount of time being hoisted skywards to catch a rugby ball, Craig Gillies was better prepared than most for the fact that his feet haven’t touched the ground over the past few weeks. It hasn’t made life any easier for the popular Warriors lock, but he’s not complaining.
Wife Tina gave birth to Niamh a few days before the season began, a week earlier than scheduled and weighing a healthy 10lbs. If that wasn’t enough of an occasion to concentrate the mind, young Ossian – who tipped the scales half-a-pound heavier when he was born – started school the same day.
No prizes for guessing, then, how Craig’s waking hours have gone in the weeks since. They start with the school run before driving to Sixways for training. Then it’s back to pick Ossian up and give Tina a break from the routine of feeds and nappies. After that, there’s homework. Then it’s close to time for bed.
As any dad should be, he’s proud of the fact that none of his handling skills have left him in the few years since the four-year-old was a toddler.
“It hasn’t been that long, but it’s been long enough,” he says of one particular duty. “It’s still one of those jobs you don’t like doing, but it has to be done.”
As often happens when there’s a new arrival in the Warrior camp, it doesn’t take long before supporters have the opportunity to bill and coo. Little Niamh is no different. She’s already made her Sixways debut, a place Ossian knows well, even if he’s still a little young to understand completely what dad’s job entails.
“He knows that I spend an awful lot of time at the club,” Craig says. “He loves coming up to watch the games.”
It’s also too early to know whether he’ll follow in dad’s imposing footsteps and, to be honest, neither of his parents mind whether he does or not.
“I want him to grow up being involved in sport of some kind. But we’re not going to push him into one thing or another. We’ll let him follow his own path, as long as he enjoys it.”
If it’s golf, and he turns out to be good at it, then you can rule out Craig as the inspiration. Unlike team-mates like Shane Drahm, Tom Harding, Mark Tucker and Pat Sanderson – to name but a few – the 30-year-old doesn’t feel at home on the golf course. You can probably picture why.
He plays with a set of clubs given to him by an uncle, 15 years ago. His uncle’s not a particularly small man, but he never addressed the ball from a height just short of seven feet. Unsurprisingly, stooping as far as he can, Craig has a fatal tendency to top the ball, or miss it altogether.
“It’s an old cliché,” he says of the suggestion that a golf round for him is a good walk ruined. “I spend more time looking for the ball than actually being on the fairway.”
Frustrating, but not as much as Warriors’ start to the season.
“We haven’t played to our ability yet and, quite often, it’s been the little things letting us down. In most of the games, the margin’s been small. It was good to win away in Northampton. It lifted the mood in the whole camp.
“We know we’re going in the right direction, but we have to turn it up some more, work harder and the wins will start coming.”
As for an England call-up that most impartial observers – and not a few partial ones – have regarded as overdue during the past couple of seasons, it’s not on Craig’s radar at all.
“When I was young, it was something that I thought about. But family priorities and such-like change your emphasis. My attention is focussed on giving Worcester the best I can give. I’ve always said that, if you play well for your club, anything else that comes along will look after itself.”