'Rugby saved me' - Emerging Scotland star on journey from traumatic childhood to Glasgow contract

That might be a serious injury that kept them sidelined for months or the disappointment of being dropped for a big match. Some have maybe even suffered the ignominy of being released by their clubs, the sporting future they had mapped out in their heads briefly blotted by swirls of doubt.

Few, though, have been through the sort of real-life trauma endured by Macenzzie Duncan. A first professional rugby contract with Glasgow Warriors is not just a reward for the back-rower’s sporting excellence but also serves as a nod towards his powers of perseverance.

Born in Bristol and raised in the nearby coastal town of Clevedon, his was an upbringing a world away from the privileged and cosseted lives enjoyed by many of the team-mates with whom he now shares a dressing room.

Duncan reels off the incidents that marked a troubled childhood in the same almost matter-of-fact way that others might list the badges they won at swimming or Scouts. A mother with a drug dependency problem who spent time in prison. The death of an elder sister and a step-dad. Being expelled from secondary school.

Any one of those would be sufficient to push most children into a dark place but Duncan, who is Scots-qualified through his grandmother and has been part of Scotland A and Emerging Scotland squads, went through much more and somehow survived and then thrived.

‘Rugby has helped me and saved me’

“Back home I had a lot of stuff going on,” he says with a hefty dollop of understatement. “My mum was used to substance abuse and was in prison just before I went to secondary school. That obviously takes its toll.

“I had an older sister who passed away two days before my first birthday. Then my little sister and little brother's dad killed himself. So, that’s obviously a lot of trauma at a young age. But you've just got to make something of yourself or otherwise the whole family is just going to keep going down.

“I've always held onto those things. It’s not pressure [to succeed], I wouldn’t say. It’s just motivation. I can't look at a negative anymore. I just look at everything as a positive. That has a big effect.

“Rugby probably helped me and saved me. When I was in secondary school it was a downward spiral. Getting kicked out of school was probably the best thing that ever happened to someone like me. It gives you time and reflection. It made me just look at life differently and focus on myself. It takes a few years to learn from all of that as a man.”

His wait for a maiden professional contract has been “five years in the making” – three years spent with Bristol Bears then two in the Warriors academy – but a sense of perspective is a compass that continues to guide the 23-year-old. Rugby can deliver no hardship greater than the trials and tribulations he has already been through.

“As a person, I don't think negatively,” he adds. “You always believe in yourself at the end of the day. Where I come from back home, I come from nothing. I'm probably the only one in my family that's come and made something of my life.

“As a person, I might be emotionally stunted. I can't see any negativity. I guess that helps when I'm here. Everyone has bad days. Everyone makes mistakes. But you always see the light at the end of the tunnel. That's what's good about signing for two years. I knew it was coming, not being arrogant.

“I’ve played since I was four. I’ve not thought about anything other than rugby. I went to college and did bricklaying and carpentry but just so I could play rugby there. My life is rugby so I'm very locked in on this and very goal driven.”

Duncan’s younger sister, Reneeqa Bonner, has also made a name for herself in rugby, playing for Bristol Bears and Great Britain Sevens, but there are other younger siblings and cousins that Duncan hopes he can positively influence as he charts his way through the professional game.

“My little brother, my little sisters and three or four cousins are sports crazy and make posters for me and have me in their little books at school,” he adds. “So I guess they look up to me. You just want to be the best version of yourself so that they make the best choices.”