Bump into Chris Scott in the street or in a pub and it’s a very enjoyable experience – a ready smile and plenty of interesting chat is guaranteed.

Bump into him on a rugby field and it’s a lot less fun… as so many of his opponents over the years will testify.

Now 53, Scott is undoubtedly one of the finest rugby players ever produced in Cheltenham.

He numbers Newport, Neath, Worcester and his hometown club among his former teams and was that rare rugby animal – a ball playing forward who was as hard as nails.

The openside flanker was good enough to go toe-to-toe with the touring All Blacks and Springboks back in the day and was also involved in many other high-profile games during the 80s and 90s when rugby was rough, tough and uncompromising.

And yet rugby and Scott, who was born on Valentine’s Day, very nearly didn’t get it together at all.

He told The Local Answer: “I first started playing rugby when I was at Bournside but I was a bit of a reluctant player because I wanted to play football.

“I played football for Cleeve Colts – I played in midfield or anywhere up front – and I was quite good. I considered football to be my sport but the problem was that my school rugby clashed with it.

“It all came to a head in my third or fourth year at Bournside. They wanted me to play rugby and I wanted to play football. We couldn’t agree and in the end, I stopped playing sport altogether.”

In those days Scott had been playing as a fly-half or inside centre – he was a good place-kicker – and though he’d temporarily stopped playing sport, his love of all things sport never waned.

He was a big Manchester United fan and also a keen follower of Test cricket – two sporting passions that have never left him.

“I used to go up to Old Trafford a lot,” he said, “and I was there when Denis Law was playing for Manchester City and scored the goal that sent United down in the mid-70s. George Best and him were my heroes and that goal broke my heart.

“I used to go up with my uncle Bernie Watts and I was one of the fans on the pitch that caused the game to end early.”

United weren’t in the doldrums for long, of course, and they soon bounced back to the top flight and also enjoyed two Wembley FA Cup finals under Tommy Docherty, one of which they won.

After the misery of relegation, Scott enjoyed the Reds’ resurgence and would go up to Manchester as often as he could.

“I remember going up to watch an FA Cup tie in midweek against Wolves,” he laughed. “I was only 13 or 14 and I’d skived off school. I remember being at the ground and suddenly the crowd dispersed. There was Frank Bough interviewing people live on Nationwide and I was right at the front.

“I didn’t realise everyone could see me on TV – I didn’t even know what Nationwide was – so I got in a bit of trouble the following day after the headmaster asked me why I hadn’t been in school the previous afternoon and I tried to tell him I was ill!”

Scott was to leave Bournside at the age of 16 but before he did he ended his sporting stand-off with the school’s powers-that-be in his final year.

“Someone got injured and as a long-shot they asked if I’d play for the 1st XV,” he recalls. “I thought I’d let bygones be bygones and said yes.

“We played Pate’s Grammar School who had the White twins – Andy and Chris – and they were a good team as they always are.

“The Whites also played for Cheltenham Saracens Colts and they were always on the lookout for new players. I had a good game against Pate’s and my name got mentioned.

“A few weeks later Saracens played a recruitment game against Bournside and I had another good game, but afterwards Mike Edwards (manager) and Bob White (coach), who ran the Saracens Colts, didn’t approach me, they only approached my best friend Steve Martin.

“He was a very good player, but I couldn’t work out why I hadn’t been asked to join Saracens so I went and saw them. They told me that they knew I was good but that the Bournside teachers had told them that I was unreliable.

“I said, ‘Give me a go’ – it was a challenge and I wanted to prove them wrong.”

Saracens did give him a go and he was up for the challenge… although only just.

“The night before my first game for them I’d been to an all-night party,” laughed Scott. “I was knackered but for the first time ever I thought I’d turn up even though I didn’t want to. I wanted to prove people wrong.

“I got to know the Whites and thought, ‘This isn’t a bad crowd’. I sorted myself out, turned up for every game and every training session, and became very disciplined. I was told that if I got myself fit I could be a decent player.”

It was while at Saracens that Scott switched to openside flanker, a position he made his own wherever he played for the best part of 20 years.

“I wanted to move to 7 because our forwards kept hogging the ball,” he said. “The ball often never went beyond scrum-half but at 7 I could get my hands on the ball much more by supporting the forwards and playing off the three-quarters’ shoulders.”

The move worked as sweetly as one of Scott’s inside passes and by the end of his first season Scott was good enough to be playing for the Saracens’ first team.

He was enjoying his rugby, too, even though outside the actual playing side he knew little about the game. “I had no plan, no ambition,” he said, “I was just enjoying playing, making tackles and being involved.

Scott spent a couple of seasons at Saracens before being faced with his first really big rugby decision.

“Mike Edwards moved to Cheltenham and all of his Colts team went with him,” recalls Scott. “I didn’t want to go because I wanted to stay loyal to Saracens but all my mates were going, including my best buddy Mike Jones, who was a brilliant wing.

“I didn’t really know anything about Cheltenham. I knew they were a bigger club than Saracens although I didn’t know by how much and Dave Protherough (England B hooker and ex-Cheltenham captain) and Bob Redwood (went on to coach Gloucester) were the coaches.”

In those days the Colts trained with the first team squad and Scott must have made an impression because he was catapulted into the 1st XV for the first game of the season.

“When you’re a forward at that age you need strength to complement your skills and fortunately I had this” said Scott. “My first game was against Bath at The Recreation Ground. I’d never been there and here I was playing against 15 internationals.

“We lost something like 34-16 but I remember prop Andy ‘Tank’ Torkoniak also made his debut for Cheltenham that day. He was up against Gareth Chilcott and scored two tries. It was a brilliant debut for him.”

Bath included the likes of John Hall, John Horton and Simon Halliday – “One of the best backs I ever played against,” said Scott – while Cheltenham were captained by Lewis Dick and also numbered Paul Rodwell among their team.

Scott’s opposite number that day was Roger Spurrell who he describes as a “kamikaze 7”.

“He was fearless, loved a fight,” added Scott. “I played against him a few times and loved it.”

Cheltenham had a very good fixture list in those days and Scott’s displays soon brought him to the attention of England’s national age group selectors.

“I got involved with the England Colts set-up and should have got an England Under-19 cap,” he said. “I’d played in the warm-up games but then I snapped my cruciate knee ligament.”

While the chance of running out in an age group international had gone, Scott was still able to flourish at Cheltenham once he had recovered from injury.

“We used to play teams like Gloucester twice a season,” he said. “I remember beating them at Kingsholm – I scored in that game. I’m not sure what side they had out but that was a big thing.”

Scott was by now a ‘big thing’ on the rugby circuit and in his early 20s decided the time was right to test himself at a higher level.

Newport had been sniffing around him and he eventually decided to throw in his lot with the South Wales club.

So why Newport and not Gloucester, Bristol or Moseley which were the chosen destinations of most players in the area looking to move on to a higher level?

“Newport had been rejuvenated by hooker Spike Watkins, a brilliant hard player,” explained Scott. “They played in the Merit Table, had Paul Turner at fly-half and for two years became the best team.”

Scott was also encouraged to make the journey over the Severn Bridge by his friend Paul Williams, a student in Pontypridd who was a Newport supporter.

Williams played a crucial role in ensuring that Scott made training sessions and stuck at it.

Scott takes up the story: “Being an Englishman playing for a Welsh club… it was brutal. They would beat the hell out of me. The old Pontypool prop Charlie Faulkner was the coach and often you’d start a training session with 20-odd forwards and by the end there’d only be 10 left!

“Players were either knocked out and/or injured lying about on the ground, some players would be holding their heads with blood everywhere and we would continue playing stepping over them until they were dragged off the pitch by the physios or the bag man and his helper.”

This was where Williams was worth his weight in gold to Scott.

“I had no problem with standing toe-to-toe with them,” he said. “But these training games were never properly refereed. There were a lot of cheap shots – a punch from behind, a kick when you were on the floor.

“I’d look up at Paul who’d be watching in a stand and he’d hold up his fingers to indicate the shirt number of the player who had punched or kicked me so I could then do what was necessary. Because I was keeping a local out of the side I had to work twice as hard to prove myself.”

Scott wasn’t in the first team initially but because there were so many games – more than 50 in those days – he didn’t have to wait too long for his chance.

And Scott enjoyed playing for Watkins, a man who was very much cut from the same cloth as him.

“I made my debut against Ebbw Vale and I remember getting in a spot of bother with two of their players,” recalls Scott. “He came running over, sorted them out and said ‘Alright kid!’.

“He backed you up and in those days it was like a jungle. There weren’t three refs as there are today. If the ref was in the right place and couldn’t see what was going on you could let people have it.”

Watkins had had his own struggles earlier in his career and Scott could identify with him. He was playing second fiddle to Kevin Phillips for the Welsh number two jersey when a misdemeanour on the eve of one international resulted in him being told he would never play for Wales.

A few years later, in 1984, the Welsh selectors did a U-turn and not only gave Watkins his first cap but also the captaincy as well. He won the Triple Crown but afterwards resigned and never played for his country again.

Scott said: “I asked him why and he said, ‘I was told I’d never play for Wales and that was the challenge, I wanted to prove everyone wrong’.”

Watkins’ departure from Newport saw the club’s fortunes nosedive – “We went from being the best to the worst,” said Scott – and it was at this time Scott decided to take a break from the game.

“Mike Jones was working in a ski resort in Val d’Isere and I got a job working in a chalet,” said Scott. “After that I went travelling around the Greek Islands and Italy.”

He missed the best part of a season but although rugby – and Newport in particular – had missed him he had not missed the oval ball game at all.

In fact, he intended to go travelling again when he agreed to play for Cheltenham 2nds against Gloucester 2nds, and he also had a few games for Newport.

However, a few tackles and several big hits later and the passport was soon put back in the drawer because very quickly Scott found he was really enjoying his rugby again.

Around this time he was asked about his eligibility for Wales – his grandfather was Welsh – and he’d also received an offer from rugby league giants Widnes which he said he found “flattering”.

But just when things were going so well an injury stopped him dead in his tracks. And it was no ordinary injury either. At the age of 26 he smashed a kneecap, an injury that was to keep him out for a year.

The road to recovery was long but he was aided in his efforts by his hometown club with whom he spent a lot of time training.

He played a few games for Cheltenham before the end of the season to test his knee out with the plan of returning to Newport once he was back up to speed.

However, those plans were thrown into the air when he was elected captain of Cheltenham that summer.

“I wanted to play at a higher standard but I’d got friends at Cheltenham,” said Scott. “I also liked the chairman at the time, Roy Marchant (ex-mayor and of Marchant Coaches), and I decided I’d do it for them.

“It was the time when league rugby was first being introduced and I was promised we’d get better quality players but nothing happened. We brought in Chris McRae, a prop from New Zealand – he was a great guy – but that was about it.

“The ambition of the players wasn’t there and the training numbers weren’t there.

“I thought, ‘I’m 26 or 27, I’ve still got a lot to offer’. There wasn’t enough commitment on or off the pitch.”

Things came to a head after a Friday night game against Birmingham/Solihull.

“I remember we lost and our organisation was a shambles,” said Scott. “We were playing Gloucester on the Tuesday and I told the players we couldn’t go to Kingsholm with the players not understanding their roles.

“So I called a training session at the Prince of Wales Stadium at 10.30am on the Sunday so that we could run through things. By 10.45am only myself and Chris McRae were there and that was it.

“I’d had a call on the Friday from Paul Turner at Newport and he said they were playing London Welsh on the Sunday and that if I’d turn up I’d start.

“I raced home, got my blazer, went to London, played against London Welsh and was man-of-the-match.”

His delight was tempered only slightly by the fact that his problem knee had swollen up after the game which was to rule him out of Cheltenham’s game against Gloucester – a match that saw Pete Lodge, who became a stalwart of the side for many years, make his debut.

Newport, meanwhile, had a game against the Barbarians – a team packed with British Lions – on the Wednesday and the swelling on Scott’s knee had gone down sufficiently for him to play.

“I did brilliantly,” he said. “Players like Craig Chalmers and Jeremy Guscott were in the Baa-Baas team and I decided this is where I needed to be. Newport had ambition and it was a no-brainer for me. I got heavily criticised for leaving Cheltenham but I would have loved to have stayed if I could.”

By now the power in Welsh club rugby had moved west from Newport and Cardiff to Llanelli and Neath. Newport were considered a middle ranking team while Neath were the new kids on the block and they liked what they saw in Scott.

“They approached me a few times,” he admitted, “but I kept saying no, no, no. They were unofficially the best team in England and Wales but I wanted to stay loyal to Newport.

“But I was 30 and in the end I thought, ‘Why not?’”

It still wasn’t an easy decision to make, however, and Scott missed the club’s pre-season team photo session because he had still not signed on the dotted line.

Once he had joined, though, it was soon clear that it was a match made in heaven.

“They wanted their rugby players fit and hard,” said Scott. “They wanted footballing forwards who had good hands and were mobile.

“They just about held their own in the set-piece but it was the easiest couple of seasons I ever had even though there were so many high-profile games.

“I was doing nothing different but I got a lot of the ball in hand and was able to show my footballing skills rather than the defensive side.”

So well did Scott settle in at Neath that respected experts like Phil Bennett were soon calling for him to be included in the Wales squad. Injuries and a desire to pick younger players meant he never had to learn the Welsh national anthem in the end but his time at Neath saw him enjoy the not inconsiderable consolation of league and cup success.

“I was doing more attacking than defending and we were nearly always on the front foot,” said Scott.

“Our reputation was for being fit and hard. I remember on my first pre-season tour we went to the south of France where we played Toulouse and Toulon and it was brutal.

“Players were running from one breakdown to the next with their elbows in front of their faces so that they didn’t get a whack from behind… so I kept myself moving!

“So many good players didn’t make the Neath squad because they couldn’t stand up for themselves. They wanted players with guts and these games were the test.”

Scott, of course, passed the test with an A* and while at Neath he enjoyed games against touring sides from Fiji, against whom he scored a try, and South Africa, who included Joel Stransky and Joost van der Westhuizen.

“We lost by a point or two against the South Africans and should have beaten them,” said Scott, who had played against a touring All Blacks team that had included the likes of Sean Fitzpatrick and Wayne Shelford back in his Newport days.

“With Neath, I played in the Heineken European Cup competition, a fantastic test where the physicality went up a notch.

“We played against the great Brive team who truly lit up Europe, Nick Farr-Jones (former Australian World Cup captain) was their director of coaching.

“Brive’s No.7 was Gregori Kacala – he was Polish, a man mountain with great footballing skills. What a player… probably the best back row I played against. He probably would have been a legend had he opted to play for France. Brive went on to win the competition twice consecutively.”

While Scott was enjoying great success on the field in West Wales, off the field rugby was changing.

The professional era was being ushered in and a lot of Neath’s players were heading for the riches on offer in English club rugby. Scott was offered a one-year deal by Wasps but opted to join Worcester – “It was just up the road,” he said – where he was given a contract for two seasons.

“At this stage in my life I was concentrating on a career in building surveying and for the first time ever I lacked the discipline to put in the hard work to keep my levels at the required standards.

“Also, rugby itself had changed. It had become too structured and to my disappointment there was not that much emphasis on attacking – our training sessions were mainly focused on defence and pressurising the other team into errors to feed off.”

Scott didn’t particularly enjoy his time at Worcester and nor did he enjoy being a full-time rugby player.

“The professional era was not only new to me, it was new to the clubs and inevitably it would take them some time before they would get the off the pitch structures and personnel right,” he said. “These days the directors of coaching are very experienced.”

Scott admits that he must share the blame for not having the best of times at Sixways.

“I stopped challenging myself and I was counting down the days to when my contract would end so I could retire from rugby which now, thinking about it, appalls me,” he said.

“This may be the reason why I have no emotion for my time at Worcester.”

Scott admits that when he finally hung up his boots at the age of 34 he had become disillusioned with the game.

“It was all about defence,” he said. “That was the priority and it is very difficult for attacking teams because there is very little space on the field. As soon as a pass is made you cannot count more than one second before an attacking player is hit by a defender.

“Teams don’t commit players to the breakdown, which means there are always more defenders than attackers. This is a lot different to 1980s when on average each team committed five players to each ruck. No wonder there was a lot more space in those days.”

Scott says he rarely watches Premiership rugby these days – he is sick of the sameness of it all, although he’ll stay in if the All Blacks are on the telly.

“I saw the end of a recent Australia v New Zealand game,” he said. “They play the game the way it should be played. The footballing skill level and understanding per player is outstanding. You just don’t see enough of that in the Premiership and this is something the RFU has no control over and affects the way England have to play the game.”

After retiring as a player Scott steadfastly refused to get involved in coaching despite a number of offers and when he did get involved it was almost by accident.

“My oldest son William was playing for the under-17s at Cheltenham and they didn’t have a coach so I said I’d help out,” said Scott. “I did it for another year as well. We actually got to a County Cup final which was a good achievement.”

He then had two years as head coach of the senior men’s set-up at the Newlands-based club when quantity rather than quality was usually upper most in his mind.

“We just didn’t have enough players,” he said. “My goal was simply to try to get greater numbers to training and that’s happening now so I’m pleased about that.

“In terms of team organisation there wasn’t much one could do because the make up of the team changed week to week. It was a question of chucking some things at the players and hoping they would stick.

“We spent all our time trying to get a team out. We’d get the physios to play and my three older sons – William, Charlie and Dominic – all played.

“Dominic was only 16 and I’d say to him, ‘Come on Dom, come and play and I’ll buy you a curry!”.

Dominic is now 19 and preparing to start life as a student at the University of Worcester. And, just so dad knows, the curry houses in the city are apparently very good!