Scotland rugby star enters whisky business with teammate and puts Outlander actor on collaboration wish list

It’s not his first foray into the world of commerce - he had a successful sausage and biltong business which he sold to WP Nel a few years ago - but this time he has gone native.

Schoeman has teamed up with another Edinburgh and Scotland team-mate in Duhan van der Merwe to create a whisky brand called Hirundine. Their first two releases were limited edition blends which quickly sold out. The next venture is a 12-year-old malt and Schoeman’s gift of the gab means he is his brand’s best salesman.

“The more it rains in Edinburgh the better it is for us because today’s rain is tomorrow’s whisky!” he proclaims (and not for the first time, you suspect).

The company is called Against the Grain which Schoeman thinks fits well in terms of his and van der Merwe’s rather unorthodox journey into Scottish rugby. The South African pair were Junior Springboks but it was their moves to Edinburgh (van der Merwe in 2017 and Schoeman a year later) which paved their way for a Test career. Both qualified on residency grounds and are now firmly embedded in Gregor Townsend’s squad as well as the wider Scottish rugby firmament.

Whisky seems the next natural step for Schoeman who has big plans for the brand and hopes to use his connections to enlist some celebrity endorsements.

“It was actually my wife, Charissa, who had the idea of ‘Against the Grain’ – I wanted to use the name for maybe a book after rugby, as a biography or something – but then I spoke to Duhan and asked if he wanted to join this idea,” explained Schoeman. “He said he loved the proposal. It just suits both our stories: going against the grain to Edinburgh and Scotland and embracing it. And we wanted to give something back to our friends, family and fans, to enjoy while we are playing and long after we are playing.

“We might even get footballers, cricketers or movie stars involved because rugby connects people worldwide. It’s part of the culture. People in South Africa love whisky through hunting, fishing and the outdoors. So do all our friends in Scotland on a cold evening with a glass of whisky around the fire or watching the game. It just made sense for Duhan and I. He’s getting even more into the peat whiskies because he’s not really one for strong whiskies - he likes the light stuff.”

Asked which stars he would like to collaborate with, Schoeman is quick to respond and it’s hard to know how serious he’s being.

“I know Sam Heughan from Outlander,” he says. “He’s a massive fan of Duhan and I but we are massive fans of him firstly. He has his own whisky as well, which is amazing. We’ve seen Gerald Butler around camp and at matches so we could push the boat out and get him on board. Another good actor and friend of ours is Martyn Ford. He was at three of the Six Nations games and comes to watch Edinburgh too. They call him the ‘world’s scariest man’ and he’s been in a few A-list movies but I’m name dropping now! Maybe we can get someone famous like Blair Kinghorn in Toulouse to keep all the French fans happy….”