Matt Scott: Scotland cap contemplated quitting pro rugby before Leicester move
- Published
Law graduate Matt Scott joined Leicester Tigers from Edinburgh
Matt Scott contemplated quitting pro rugby and falling back on his degree during the five months it took him to secure his future with Leicester.
The Scotland centre says a verbal offer of a new contract at Edinburgh was withdrawn before Christmas.
He did not finalise the move to the English Premiership until May, by which time his wife was pregnant and the Covid-19 crisis was at its height.
"It was pretty scary to be honest," said the 29-year-old.
"I was offered a verbal contract, I told my wife that and we planned to stay in Edinburgh for another three years. But when we went to finalise it, it had been taken away. It's happened now and it's in the past.
"That was just before Christmas so it wasn't a great time to tell my wife that we didn't have a contract. We never would have imagined that it would have taken until May to sort something out, with Covid coming. It was stressful, of course it was."
Scott, capped 39 times by Scotland, has a law degree but "was still confident that there would be something out there".
"You just never know," added the former Gloucester player.
"I didn't know how Covid was going to affect clubs - maybe they'd just put a stop on recruitment.
"I feel incredibly grateful to be given the opportunity and not just any opportunity, an opportunity at one of the biggest clubs in the world."