Tearful prop wants more after growing up 'idolising Scotland'

“It was like a ‘get to the top of the hill and see how far you’ve climbed’ moment,” he said. “I finished the game and I was looking around thinking ‘I can’t believe I have just played for the national team’. It always seemed just so unattainable as a goal.”

It was a winning start, too, with the Glasgow Warriors tighthead coming off the bench to replace Elliot Millar Mills for the final 25 minutes of the 41-12 victory at Eden Park.

“It was a massive moment for me,” said the prop. “While I sound very English, I grew up in Edinburgh and my dad was involved in the national set-up. I really grew up idolising the Scotland squad. They were super-human in my household. Me and my brother were just massive fans.

“It was a very introspective moment for me, thinking ‘look at how much work I’ve done to get here, look at how many selections I’ve been through, how many times I’ve worked myself into the floor with blood, sweat and tears to get to this point’. So I was very proud of myself, and very proud of everyone who has sacrificed so much time for me to get there. I spent the whole week before the game thinking about it and that second the final whistle went, I was in floods of tears.”

As Richardson alludes to, he is no overnight sensation. He turns 27 next week and combined rugby with studying for a law degree at the University of Exeter before going full time at Exeter Chiefs. He spent the 2023-24 season with Cornish Pirates in the English Championship - his first real exposure to regular pro rugby - and then moved north to join Glasgow.

He was taken on Scotland’s tour of the Americas that summer as a “development player” and, while he wasn’t part of the official squad, Gregor Townsend was clearly keeping an eye on him. He almost made his Scotland debut last autumn after Zander Fagerson’s wife went into labour on the eve of the match against Fiji at Murrayfield but Fagerson returned in time and Richardson was stood down. He had yet to play for Glasgow at that point and the prospect of making his international debut filled him with some trepidation.

“Talk about baptism of fire, I was up the entire night trembling away!” he laughs. “But now I feel ready.”

Fagerson has been Glasgow’s and Scotland’s outstanding tighthead for the past decade, so much so that whenever he is injured - as he is currently - concerns begin to grow. Will Hurd understudied Fagerson during the Six Nations this year and Millar Mills and D’Arcy Rae have also played in the last 12 months but the door is open.

Richardson is growing and learning at Glasgow under Franco Smith and would love the opportunity to be involved with Scotland in the autumn when the USA, New Zealand, Argentina and Tonga come to Edinburgh.

“Absolutely,” he said. “For me, momentum has been very high and I need to keep that ball rolling now and keep the good performances coming, to show I deserve to keep going.”

And the prospect of playing at Murrayfield?

“I was crying after the game against Samoa,” he said. “I’m going to be in floods if I’m hearing that second verse of Flower of Scotland in Murrayfield!”