Adored in Wales and desperate to upset the Irish, Scotland skipper John Barclay is the Celtic warrior

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If John Barclay hears ‘Flower of Scotland’ being sung with a Welsh accent on Saturday, in the capital of Ireland, it will signify that the Scarlets are in shock-and-awe mode again – and that he is signing-off in style.

For a lifetime wanderer, Llanelli to Edinburgh is not an epic voyage, but that is what awaits this summer. 

By then, he will hope to have secured another league title with his region and appeared in the Champions Cup Final in Bilbao, providing the last British side in Europe’s showcase event this season can upset Irish tournament favourites Leinster at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday afternoon. 

John Barclay's Scarlets take on Leinster at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday afternoon

Barclay is the Scottish Test captain with a fervent following in west Wales. They sang his anthem with gusto at Parc y Scarlets following the Scarlets’ quarter-final victory over French visitors La Rochelle, to confirm his place in the folklore of a proud rugby heartland. 

For a player who spent his formative years on the move, this was further proof that he had truly found a home from home.

It helps that he inspired the downfall of the English at Murrayfield during the Six Nations. 

‘I think we’re all Celtic brothers,’ said Barclay. ‘When I came back after the game against England, I was walking down the front in Mumbles with my dog and my middle son, and people were beeping the horn and shouting stuff. Everyone was speaking to me about the rugby, saying, "Well done".'

In an area where many people speak the native language, Barclay has to rely on the eldest of his three sons for linguistic support. Finlay is fluent. John certainly isn’t. ‘I know a few words in Welsh, but Finlay has been to a Welsh school,’ he said. ‘We thought it would be good for his development.

‘The first day we took him there I was just thinking to myself, “I feel so bad for him” because all the kids were speaking Welsh and straight away the teacher was speaking in Welsh too. He was looking at me and I was just like, “Mate, you’re on your own!”.

‘But he loves it now. His pals come round the house and they’ll all be speaking Welsh. He won’t speak it to me though. Apparently that is just about association. He didn’t think of it as a language, he just thought of it as, “When I go to school, this is what I do”. So he wouldn’t say much to me, but if Scott Williams came round, he’d speak Welsh to him.’

Barclay jokingly describes the family travels when he was growing up as ‘ridiculous’. He was born in Hong Kong – where the famous Sevens tournament was the first rugby to appear on his young radar – before a meandering path through Belgium, Switzerland, Hong Kong again, Kuala Lumpur, the Philippines, London, Shanghai and Scotland.

After leaving boarding school, he found himself pitched into the senior Scotland squad; despite no senior-level experience at all. 

'I was told I was in the squad for the autumn,’ he said. ‘I thought they meant the Under 19s. I got there and was told, “You are the youngest person in the Scotland squad for over 20 years”.

‘The next week, I played for a local team, and the older guys in the opposition really took me down a peg or two. I got the s*** kicked out of me. They were all saying, “Who the f*** is this? Let’s get into him”. I’d just left school and not even played men’s rugby. It probably wasn’t the best plan for me — it just put me on a pedestal to get knocked off it.’

Barclay is Scottish Test captain with a fervent following in west Wales after playing in Llanelli

Following that in-at-the-deep-end episode, Barclay found his feet in the professional game, only for a freak accident to deny him a shot at England in 2008 — the last time the Scots won the Calcutta Cup, before this year.

‘I was on a sofa with a wine glass in my hand,’ he explained. ‘Someone just sat down on my hand and the wine glass shattered. It sliced my hand to pieces. I was gutted. I thought, “Maybe I could still play”, but I had to have stitches because the end of my finger was flapping off. It was cut down to the bone.’

In career terms, Barclay’s moves have been of the short-haul variety; Glasgow to the Scarlets in 2013 and back to Edinburgh in June this year — to link up with ‘pitbull’ Richard Cockerill. 

He will swap Llanelli for Edinburgh in the summer to link up with Richard Cockerill

He has prospered in Llanelli. The Scarlets have harnessed an adventurous streak which has also been a hallmark of Gregor Townsend’s Scotland. Barclay plays his breakdown poaching part and fits in well with the high-octane chaos.

The pool-stage thrashing of Bath in the West Country summed up the threat posed by Wayne Pivac’s cavaliers.

‘I got sin-binned and while I was off, we scored 14 points,’ he said. ‘I was just sitting there watching it thinking, “This is crazy”. Guys were off-loading all over the place. With Scotland, Gregor tries to push the envelope and down here with the Scarlets, we have the players who can do that. It is tiring, but it’s much worse to defend against.’

Pivac is tipped to take over from another Kiwi, Warren Gatland, as Wales’ next head coach. Barclay lauded his man-management credentials and the way he has created a band-of-brothers ethos. 

Barclay inspired the downfall of the English at Murrayfield during the Six Nations tournament

‘He’s happy for us to go out and have a beer together,’ he said.

‘He understands the importance of building bonds within the squad. Everyone talks about Saracens and the bonding trips they have — well, we don’t have the budget to go to Miami so we go to Tenby instead, on the bus!’

The Scarlets go into this afternoon’s encounter as optimistic outsiders, having stunned Leinster and Munster in Dublin to win the league last year.

‘We went into those games so confident and relaxed, and we’ll be the same this weekend,’ said Barclay. ‘We will enjoy being underdogs and being written off.’