FOOTBALL and rugby can appear to some in Scotland as sports at opposite ends of the spectrum, but when Lewis Stevenson plays for Hibernian against Barcelona next week he will owe some gratitude to Scotland rugby sevens cap Andrew Easson.
The pair are among a breed of exciting young talent emerging in Scottish football and rugby and they enjoyed discussing yesterday at Murrayfield how they started out together as Kirkcaldy schoolkids and ended up in the country's biggest stadium.
F
or Easson the 67,800-capacity ground is 'home', the 6ft centre a professional with Edinburgh, while Stevenson makes a brief appearance across from the east of the city when Hibs take on the Catalan giants and, arguably, the world's trickiest footballer in Lionel Messi, in a pre-season friendly next Thursday night.
Both started out at Dunnikier Primary and then Balwearie High School in Kirkcaldy, regularly playing various games in the local parks. Stevenson, who was thrust onto the SPL stage as a virtual regular under former manager John Collins when just 18, admitted that his ambitions took a more serious turn when he watched Easson training.
He explained: "We were in the opposite class to begin with but we stayed just up the road from each other, and it has been fun watching him progress at the same time I have.
"I never really thought I'd be a footballer when I was young. It was actually when I was watching Andrew doing sessions himself in the park after school that I started to think about the dedication you needed to make it in sport, and I started thinking more seriously about it."
The skilful midfielder had been on the books of St Johnstone since primary school and switched to Hibs at 13, and the opposition next week shows the speed of the youngster's journey to a stage full of opportunity.
"It is amazing," he said. "I used to get those fake Barcelona shirts brought home by relatives from Spanish holidays not that long ago, and now hopefully I'll get a real one after the game. There will be a rush probably. Everyone will want Messi's, but I'll maybe just try to get one of the young boys who's going to become the next superstar.
"It's a great opportunity to play and measure yourself against a team like that. Many players don't get the chance to play Barcelona in their whole career, even though it is only a friendly, or at Murrayfield.
"I think it will be a great occasion for the players and fans. It doesn't matter who comes, they'll have a team of superstars – they don't play average players.
"But this is for our fitness as well – we're not coming here as a circus act and we want to show what we can do. We'll try and enjoy it, but there's a serious side as well – we want to play well and make sure the fans get their money's worth."
Those supporters will also be pleased to hear the 20-year-old stating he is unruffled by spending time on the fringes of the team under Mixu Paatelainen, insisting he is still learning and happy to continue that over the next three years of his contract.
Easson, now 21, but who also made his senior debut as a teenager, will be cheering on his fellow Fifer from the West Stand next week in a break from Edinburgh's preparations to face world rugby's giants in English champions Wasps, also at Murrayfield, in their first pre-season friendly next month.
But could it have been the other way around – Dunnikier's Easson taking on Barcelona and Dunnikier's Stevenson facing Wasps?
"For him, definitely," insisted Easson. "We never got rugby at school, but I used to bring a ball in and we'd throw it about and Lewis could definitely have been a good, fiery wee scrum-half."
Stevenson was similarly insistent on his former schoolmate's behalf, adding: "Andrew could have made it in football; no doubt. He was always big and a strong centre-half – no-one wanted to get in a tackle with him. He was definitely better than he thought he was; he was always very modest about his football.
"I was always too small for rugby, really, though my late grandfather Dick Allan also tried to get me into it. He played for Boroughmuir and was a big rugby fan, and he took me to Murrayfield to watch them in the cup final, and I enjoyed it, but it was football for me."
Easson added: "You'd have to say he's done pretty well with the route he took. I remember watching him getting 'man-of-the-match' against Dunfermline and then laughing when he did his after-match interview! I'll definitely be there next week cheering him on against Barcelona."
The full article contains 809 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
