Navy & Old Gold - Lee Tennant

Hello Northerners,

We hope this blog finds you well. As part of the Old Navy and Gold blog series, we sat down with Lee Tennant, new 2nd XV captain and all-round good guy last week to find out a bit more about the man behind the myth. 

Below is the transcript of the interview – in order of questions ask - which if you don’t want to read, you can watch in a somewhat disjointed order – with hot mic moments - at the bottom of the page. 

So the first question, which was submitted by our audience, was: Would you rather fight one horse-sized duck or a hundred duck-sized horses? 

I think this is a no-brainer. A hundred duck-sized horses, you just kick them away. And also have you seen the inside of a duck's beak? Quite terrifying. So I think a no-brainer for me. 

Nan bread or baguette. Which can be thrown further? 

Yeah, I don't really get this trend, but surely a naan bread and I think plain plain naan bread would go for there.

And what's the logic behind that? 

I think with the frisbee action it would give the required distance. 

Tory Twos, Socialist Seconds, or something else?* 

Yeah, I think probably leaning towards maybe Socialist Twos, but you know as long as I've been here we've been dubbed the Tory twos and I think it's worked for us over the years - so why break something that's not broken.

I'll be honest it feels like you're sitting on the fence there. Could you please commit to your ideological position? 

Let's go the Tory Twos. 

We’re going to ask you a little bit about yourself, so the new members and perhaps the older members can learn a bit more about who Lee Tennant is. The first question is, if you could be any animal, what would it be and why?

I'm not sure. I had a failed job interview many years ago where I said eagle, so I won't go for that. I might go a house cat. I guess all they do is sleep and eat. It seems pretty good. 

Excellent. Very pampered as well. The next question I suppose would be is what hobbies do you have outside of Edinburgh Northern? 

I try and golf as much as I can. 
What's your handicap? 

About 18 at the moment. I was going to try and bring it down this summer but haven't really done that sadly. There's a quite a good group of Northerners who are golfing, so it's been a great chance to kind of socialize with them outside of rugby and play a bit more golf -  the Northern Swingers. Otherwise, being in my being mid-30s I I spend a lot of time looking out my garden window looking at the birds, and the bird feeders so but I don't know if that's a hobby or not.

Every rugby player needs fuel. What is your favorite cuisine? 

Another tough one. I think there's probably quite a few options there, but I might go for one that's probably quite underrated. That's probably Greek food, kind of herby chicken and feta, a pretty solid combination. 

Yeah, I love Greek food. You cannot beat a gyros if I'm honest.

Yeah, absolutely. Very fatty as well, and yeah, I have plenty of that - as you can see.

You are quite well traveled. What is your favorite place in the world? 

Yeah, there's probably plenty of things that spring to mind. Went to New York a few years ago, which was brilliant - great food, great sights. But we go up to Inverness quite a lot, so I might say the Highlands. It's just a great place to kind of just go switch off do some outdoor sports swimming etc, and of course there's plenty of good golf courses up that way as well.

Where would Inverleith Park rank? 

I think that's high up there.

Top five? 

Definitely top five. 

Could describe yourself in three words? 

I think the only three words are probably tall, dark and handsome.

Move on to talk about rugby, because obviously we're a rugby club and that's an important part about why we're here. So what are your favorite memories of playing Edinburgh Northern? 

I think there's probably many, many nights in the bunker probably not 100% suitable to talk about here. But I think a couple of years ago ,certainly with the Twos when we won the league. I think it was just a great season across the board but certainly that last run of games and especially that last game when it was so tight - it was a must win, top of the league clash - and yeah everyone kind of just got together and really pulled through and showed the resilience, talent, want from everything. I don't think that can be beaten - yet  - anyway

What would you say to anyone looking to join Northern?

If your thinking about joining Northern - I'd say do it. You know, I think it's great that we've got guys who have either never picked up a ball before, or who have stepped away from the game for four five plus years or have kind of just moved to the city -  a variety of different reasons really. I think no matter what you want from the game I think Northern has it. It's a great group of lads who all want to just  be on the same page - they want to play hard; they want to play rugby; play a nice competitive game and then have some beers, and a good laugh afterwards.

Fantastic. You've been given the great honor this season of being the named the 2nd XV captain. You've played under some great captains to name a few - Alan Burns, Ed Russell, myself for the Scottish Parliament. Who are your leadership icons? 

Yeah, all you've named all the greats there. I think that I think I kind of want to take a bit from everyone that you've name under. But in terms of  leadership icons, I think there's only one, and that's Barry Ferguson.

Would you say he's simply the best? 

I would, yeah. I would say he's simply the best. 

In terms of the captaincy, what are you looking forward to most about officially doing in that role?

I think we've got great lads coming down and I think the recruitment drive again this summer has been fantastic. We've got a mix of guys, who again, like I said, who are brand new to sport coming back after a while. So I think I’m looking forward to just getting stuck in [with them], getting game time for everyone and just playing and seeing what this group can do for this coming year

Fantastic. As you know you follow literally - as recorded in the minutes by the club's committee the 2nd XV most successful ever captain - into post. Given Ed Russell's enormous shoes, what would represent a successful season this year for the 2nd XV? 

I think definitely pushing to the top of the table. It’s a new-ish league for us this year with some new teams, but I think that we can definitely push to the push to the top and if we are then we really kind of should be pushing for silverware as well for me I think that's what we should be aiming for. 

I would argue that that would be a bigger achievement than Ed’s, it's if we were to win this league given the teams that will be in it?

Oh, without a shadow of a doubt. 

The twos are going on their first bus trip and train trip in many years this season. Have you got any special plans for those occasions? 

Yeah we've got a few things up our sleeves. I think it's very exciting for a lot of the guys who've never been on a bus trip before. So yeah certainly a few things up your sleeves but that would be telling. So I'm keeping it close to my chest for now. 

That is fair. The best secrets are the kept secrets. A final question - if you could be any other Northerner who would it be and why?

I feel like I should probably say like a back or something like that just because they don't really do much. However, I think I might just go I might go Rob [Hotchkiss] just because he's a an all-round great guy. 

Thanks for joining us Lee. Moving forward, our next blog will be a preview of the Queensferry game, with some team news etc, due out shortly. Please tuned for all things Northern, coming your way in the near future. 

Yours in rugby,

ENRFC

*The ideological alignment of the 2nd XV was prompted by accusations in some circles – East Lothian based clubs - that being a club from Stockbridge we were “quite posh” and thus the moniker was formed. Certain elements rejected this, and thereon there was a schism of thought - it remains to this day a subject of not-so-great debate.