There are a few ways to get to Oban from Glasgow. You could drive 97 miles, looping over Loch Lomond, skirting Loch Awe, passing through Tyndrum and Dalmally. You could also take the bus, similar itinerary but about thirty minutes longer.
If you really wanted to treat yourself, you would take the train. Just over three hours, but the view is as good as any in the world. Don’t leave it too long because by the winter you’ll understand why it is referred to as the Polar Express.
It takes a bit of sacrifice to get there, but you will not be shortchanged for your efforts.
Scenic promenade, Highland Games, a chippy with Rick Stein’s stamp of approval. Oban is its own little paradise on the West Coast, a coastal fishing town that is as ‘The Gateway to the Isles’ to Lismore, Mull and Kerrera among others.
You would be in good company too, because if the people of Oban know anything, it’s sacrifice. Against the odds, a town with a population of just over 8,000 produced two Scotland internationals in Magnus Bradbury and Abi Evans, currently gracing the pitches of Edinburgh and Glasgow respectively.
For all it has to offer, there is a sense that both succeeded in spite of, rather than because they came from Oban.
Talent never in doubt
As it is with 99.9% of all athletes who go on to represent their country, the talent was never in question.
According to Murray Hamilton, Principal Teacher of PE at Oban High School and a former student, Bradbury was always one of the better players as a child. Playing for both Oban HS and Oban Lorne RFC before representing the Argyll and Bute district team.
Sport was in Bradbury’s blood. His mother, Dee Bradbury OBE, was a gifted athlete herself. A former rugby player who would work in various roles until becoming SRU president in 2018 before being inducted into the Scottish Rugby Hall of Fame. His brother Fergus would play for Stirling and represent Scotland at U20 level.
“He was always a more athletic build, but his dad wasn’t particularly sporty,” she recalls.
“But because I came from a sports background and got so much from it, I said to my husband from early days, the boys will play sport. I don’t care what it is they choose, but we will facilitate it.”
Magnus was a promising athlete for whom a professional career was on the cards, neither was there any doubt Abi could go places. The prototype “student athlete”, says coach Hamilton. Evans was head and shoulders above the others in whatever sporting endeavour she put her mind to.
“I always remember her brilliantly carrying the ball in two hands all of the time. She didn’t often pass because she didn’t need to,” he says.
For a while however, Abi’s sport of choice was swimming, with rugby more of a hobby. Abi’s mother Maureen shared a similar approach to Dee. A far cry from the touchline hugging, shouty parents you might be unfortunate enough to cross paths with on any given Sunday.
“We always encouraged but didn’t force them to do anything. We were an active family.”
Hamilton remembers the moment it became clear that Magnus could take his ability to the next level.
“I remember Dee and I having a conversation and kind of modestly asking ‘do you think he’s good enough?’ And I said, ‘Dee, I think he’s the best young player I’ve seen.’”
“I said you’d regret it if you don’t go for it and she agreed.”
Through a contact, conversations began with historic Edinburgh school Merchiston Castle, who offered Magnus a “very substantial scholarship”, says Dee.
“My husband wasn’t so keen on the idea. But you know, I just told him,” she says with a conviction which makes her rise to the top in the SRU easy to understand.
Evans’ talents in the pool meant she too was offered a scholarship to Strathallan, a boarding school in Forgandenny, just south of Perth. It wouldn’t be long before her full attention would switch to rugby but for both, the increased professionalisation paid dividends.
Although they would enjoy and endure the peaks and troughs of a career in professional sports, they played for Scotland a combined 37 times – something most of their teammates and opponents growing up would be so lucky to do once.
Evans enjoyed spells in England with Darlington Mowden Park and Saracens before splitting her time between Glasgow Warriors and Hillhead Jordanhill RFC.
Magnus made his Scotland debut against Argentina in 2016, his parents watching on proudly at Murrayfield. The back-rower had hit the big time and despite leaving Oban as a teenager, he never forgot the people who had helped him get there.
Hamilton recalls: “He told me to come down to the edge of the tunnel and we went to get a nice photo. He ran back in and came out with his debut shirt, and handed it to me”.
“You get two with the embroidery on the bottom and he chucked that at me. He said ‘this is for you.’
“That, to me, kind of sums it up.”
Sacrifice
Sacrifice for sporting success takes many forms. For Bradbury, part of that meant reeling in any typical teenage behaviour which could get in the way of a career in rugby remembers Hamilton.
“Magnus will be the first to tell you, I had a conversation with him where he was hanging out with the boys and getting into mischief, and I said, listen, who do you think they’re going to recognise as a group of boys being idiots?
“It’s going to be the six-foot-six idiot, not all the other boys that look the same or are the same height.”
Message received and ingrained discipline in hand, Magnus was faced with another problem. Growing up in Oban was a double edged sword. An ideal location to grow up also meant long distances to Scotstoun, as Oban fell under the Glasgow Warriors catchment area.
“We’d pick him up from school, drive down, sit there while the session was conducted, and then it’d be recovery food in the car on the way back up,” says Dee.
“He’d be sitting with the passenger light on trying to do his homework, and then straight to bed, and then repeat a couple of days later. And then, of course, you had matches at the weekend as well.”
Abi’s attitude off the pitch never seemed to come into question, but like Magnus, commuting to play in Glasgow proved challenging according to Maureen.
“Even when she was in Perth she was having to get the taxi into the station, then the train to Queen Street and get herself to Hyndland.”
“Then the same on the way back, twice a week and to wherever they were playing on a Saturday.”
Maureen is recognizant of how supportive Jordanhill were towards Abi, but women’s sport is far more precarious than the world Magnus inhabited.
“She’s had hundreds of rubbish jobs,” she says.
Many of those jobs would happily allow Abi flexibility because she was taking the time to play for Scotland but it is difficult to imagine Huw Jones or Darcy Graham having to do the same.
However when Evans suffered an injury, she lost her contract with the SRU and many might have withered where she persevered. Thanks in part to the support of fiancé Daniel, who helped provide a platform for her talents to take centre stage.
Just as valuable as the sacrifice the athletes themselves made, is that of the parents and coaches who drove, cooked and volunteered at great expense to make the success at all possible. Many whilst working jobs of their own.
“Early on, it was just me supporting her and I’m a single parent. That is really, really difficult. Especially when she was much younger than her brother as well,” Maureen says.
“However hard everyone else has to work, they have to work twice as hard if they’re not in that central belt. There’s not much recognition for it and there’s the cost implications as well.
“There are people that just can’t afford it. No matter how much they would like to support their kids, they just can’t afford it. It’s a big ask on parents.”
Fellow mother Dee shares the same sentiments when it comes to the disadvantages that come with living outside the two biggest cities.
“I think because we are geographically quite isolated, it shouldn’t preclude boys and girls from pursuing a career in sport. I mean, look at Bob MacIntyre (Oban-born Ryder Cup champion), he succeeded despite the fact he stayed in Oban.”
Sporting Poverty
Both parents have nothing but praise for Hamilton, without whom it is clear youth rugby at the school would struggle to exist. Less recognising of his own contribution, Hamilton is frustrated by the uphill struggle both would not have faced had they grown up in the central belt.
“Rural sporting poverty” as he describes it.
“The reality was he had to go away and play more competitive rugby in order to make it, and I think looking back, as much as it pains me that that shouldn’t be necessary, it was the right thing to do. I think you should be able to play where you grow up and still have a chance to play for your country, but the reality of that is very different.”
Whilst the added barriers to representing your country should not be underestimated, neither should the accomplishment of actually doing so.
Legacy
An Oban Lorne team which once relied on Abi’s ability have now learned to share the responsibility amongst them. Evans continues to return to the town and visit the school her mum works in, bringing kit with her and inspiring girls who might not have had a rugby program had she not blazed a trail.
“I’ve got her talks pinned up on the wall next to Magnus. She’s one that we put up on the mantle and say, there’s no reason that you can’t make it,” says Hamilton.
Magnus is no different in bringing loot to the school, leaving “a huge bag of kit” from Edinburgh’s previous campaign.
“He’s been a real trailblazer for us. It shows that you can do it, even if you grow up in Oban,” Hamilton adds.
Among all the anecdotes shared about the recently re-appointed Edinburgh captain, there is one which stands out as a testament to Bradbury’s attachment to his hometown.
“I’m not sure if we can actually publicise this,” warns his former coach, “I only found out recently he got in a little bit of trouble for it but technically, he was supposed to be contracted with Boroughmuir. But he came out to play a pre-season game with Oban Lorne because he wanted to make sure his first senior men’s appearance was with the club that had put him through.
“Whether he got his knuckles wrapped or not, I don’t care, I don’t think he does. I think he feels he did the right thing. Now we say to the kids coming through ‘yeah he went away, yeah he plays pro, yeah he’s played for Scotland. Do you know who he played for first?’
“He played for Oban.”
The key to their success was never raw talent alone. In truth, those with natural ability are a dime a dozen when you consider the amount of players who pass through the academies of Glasgow and Edinburgh.
For Hamilton, it is Bob MacIntyre’s message to the High School’s students which encapsulates what made it possible for the three to reach the heights they did despite the odds that were stacked against them.
“He’s a great guy, very grounded and down to earth. I loved when he brought the Cup back and showed it around to the students and took questions. The last one was ‘what does it take to make it?’ I think Magnus has given the same answer.
“You need sacrifice.”
A quality that will never be in short supply in Oban.
(Top Illustration: Findlay Brown – Images: SNS Group/ Edinburgh Rugby/ George Bayliss)
