Jack Dempsey’s Scottish roots and Glasgow sea change raise permanent shift for one-time Wallaby

The nearest football club here isn’t Celtic or Rangers but Partick Thistle, the cultish alternative currently jostling for promotion back to the top division.

It is also home now for Jack Dempsey. Where several decades ago Andrew Prentice took leave of Scotland to journey across the world and set up a new life in Australia, his grandson has chosen to make the same journey in reverse, agreeing to a contract with Glasgow Warriors this time last year and then arriving in August to begin the latest chapter of his rugby union career.

Dempsey’s sea change has been followed by a shake-up of World Rugby’s own eligibility regulations, opening up the possibility of the 27-year-old switching allegiances and turning out in the dark blue of Scotland.

Eligible from this October thanks to his aforementioned grandfather, it is something that he admits holds significant appeal, especially with the next World Cup only 18 months away.

Initial talks have been held about the possibility and his mum, Rose, is particularly keen to see Dempsey turn out for the country of her father. The player, though, has eight months to weigh everything up and plans to use the Scottish summer to explore it in more detail.

There is a part of him reluctant to completely close the door on representing Australia ever again, while he is also mindful of restricting his Super Rugby future options should he become a “foreign” international.

“On paper, the idea of playing Test rugby again appeals, no matter who you’re playing for,” Dempsey admits. “But you’ve got to make sure you’re not taking it for granted.

“I’m very close to guys like Sam (Johnson), Sione (Tuipulotu) and Cole (Forbes) who have all come out (to play) for Scotland. Sione came over around the same time as me and has now played for Scotland so I’ve been able to ask him personal questions about his decision and how he came to it.

“He’s got a grandparent from Scotland the same as me. You look at their team and there are so many South Africans, Kiwis and Aussies so nationality is a grey area. And then you see the passion that those guys played with against England and you can tell that they’re clearly invested in what the team and country are trying to do. That appeals so much to me.

“I can’t really comment on [whether he’s spoken to Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend] but there have been quite a few talks behind the scenes with various people.

“My mum is pretty keen for me to play for Scotland as it’s her side of the family. All I can do for now is to try to take my rugby to another level so that both countries are competing for me. That would be the best case after two years of not being wanted by the national team.

“I know that once you change nationality you can’t change back plus you’d technically be an international player for an Australian franchise. And that could affect my decision to go home again one day to play. So there are so many different factors.

“I have until October to think about it so I won’t be making any decisions any time soon. I’m going to finish this season with the Warriors, go into my holiday break and review everything with some key people and get their advice.

“Growing up as a kid all I wanted to do was play for Australia and I was lucky enough to fulfil that dream. So if you’re going to then commit to a whole different country you’ve got to make sure it’s for the right reasons. Not for money, fame or for anything other than a reason that matches your principles as a person. And that’s something that’s important to me.”

The last of Dempsey’s 14 international appearances – for now – came against Georgia in October 2019. Meanwhile, life in Glasgow has begun well for the all-action No.8. A night out with teammate Josh McKay shone a light on “the potential for (rugby’s) growth in this country”, as packed bars cheered on a recent Scotland-England Six Nations clash in the shadow of the ever present Celtic and Rangers rivalry.

Now set up in a city of 600,000, Dempsey’s new home is a fraction of the size of his native Sydney, and must feel like a world away from his days at the Waratahs, where he claimed two Australian conference titles in seven seasons.

Glasgow’s playing style also seems to suit his strengths – with no player enjoying more carries in the United Rugby Championship, the main ‘domestic’ competition that also includes sides from Ireland, Wales, Italy and South Africa. It is little wonder that he has quickly become a cult hero among the Warriors fanbase.

“I definitely wanted to come here for a fresh start and impress from the offset,” Dempsey says. “I knew beforehand what my strengths and weaknesses were and felt the type of rugby here was going to let me express what I’m good at as a ball carrier.

“I’d say the Warriors are the team in the division that’s closest to the southern hemisphere in terms of style of rugby. That’s made it an easier transition for me than going to, say, Munster or Ulster.

“At Warriors we play on a fast deck with the 4G (Glasgow’s synthetic pitch designed to counter conditions during Scottish winters) and have players comfortable in that style. The way Nigel Carolan, our attack coach, approaches the game is essentially what I was brought up on. The tactics and language he uses are very similar.

“Back home I’d be used as a line-out jumper a fair bit but here with guys like Richie Gray, Ryan Wilson and Scott Cummings they’re going to get the line-out every single time. In Australia we don’t have the depth at lock to be able to rely on them the way they can here.

“The big difference under a guy like Danny Wilson (Warriors head coach), who used to be the forwards coach for Scotland, is that it’s very tactical and technical around the set-piece. At the start it was like I was being spoken to in Japanese! That was something I’d never heard before, or certainly not for a long while. So that’s probably been the biggest adjustment.”

Adjustments are simply now the norm in a world still navigating the pandemic, but for Dempsey disruption was found elsewhere in 2020.

He had been eager to impress after returning from the Rugby World Cup in Japan but results either side of the Covid-enforced break, as well as an alarming talent drain, saw the Waratahs struggle badly.

When the Wallabies returned to action in late 2020 and Dempsey wasn’t selected by new coach Dave Rennie – ironically himself recently arrived from Glasgow – for the Bledisloe Cup games with the All Blacks, it was another indicator that it was perhaps time to consider a fresh challenge. A few months later he had signed for Glasgow.

“You had Michael Cheika at the Wallabies and Daryl Gibson at the Waratahs both stepping down around the same time,” he recalls. “So there was a massive transition at both club and country with a lot of players moving on, at the Waratahs in particular.

“On top of that, it was the first year I’d gone in specialising as a No.8 and had conversations with Rob Penney, the new Waratahs coach, about that. There were a few teething issues around that and the team struggled as a whole in the five or six games we played before Covid hit.

“When we restarted, we had lost Kurtley Beale to France and we just couldn’t hit any form. I had to show the national team that I deserved to be picked again and unfortunately I just couldn’t do that. Dave Rennie was coming in with fresh eyes and looking to pick a squad from scratch and I didn’t take my opportunity. When the first squad was announced he spoke about certain things I needed to work on as a No.8 and other general things around my workrate and ruck dominance.

“That spilled into 2021 which was going to be my final season at the Waratahs and it was a bit of a shambles. We lost all our players and lost every game all year. Even though I knew I was leaving, it was still sad to see. You never want to go out like that.

“It was just a tough couple of years for the Waratahs and it had an impact on getting picked for the national team. We weren’t playing well enough as a team to justify selection. You look inside during tough times like that and the personal growth just wasn’t there which was a large part of the reason for me deciding to move to Scotland, even if it meant I would take myself out of the picture for the Wallabies. I just needed a fresh start.

“But I don’t have regrets about my international career. I had a lot of pretty unlucky injuries during that window when I was in or around the Test team. So with better luck I could have got to 30 or 40 caps. But there were plenty highlights still like going to the World Cup and beating the All Blacks in my first game at home and getting man-of-the-match.

“I also got to play with my mates like Andrew Kellaway who I’ve known since I was about 12, Matt Philip and Jake Gordon and we’ll always have that connection. It’s not something that I’ll look back on and be bitter about or wish I’d done more.”