Oli Kebble relishing his rugby after joining Glasgow Warriors’ new dad club

Oli Kebble was the latest to join the new dad club, the Glasgow prop and partner Olivia welcoming baby Lachlan into the world a few weeks ago, causing Kebble to miss the Champions Cup tie with Northampton Saints.

The South African-born Scotland cap has returned to the Warriors team with renewed motivation and purpose, doing his bit off the bench on Friday night as Glasgow claimed a 22-10 first-leg advantage in the annual 1872 Cup duel with Edinburgh.

The build-up to Saturday’s return at Murrayfield has been a bit quieter than usual for the Kebble family, with the usual festive trip to the pub swapped for relaxing on the sofa with the baby.

“It’s the best thing I’ve ever done becoming a dad and it’s an amazing feeling,” he cooed. “It’s my first kid and the first grandkid for both sides of the family so he got spoiled rotten this Christmas.

“We’ve so many teammates with kids and they’ve warned me about how tired I’ll be for training. It’s not actually been that bad because my expectations were so low and I prepared for the worse.

“You just adapt to the tiredness and you feel a huge sense of purpose with the baby – it’s different from having a hangover from an all-nighter! It’s certainly different from last year’s Christmas when we were in the pub and having a beer. It was bottle feeding this year and lying on the couch.

“You feel like you’ve actually done something when looking after a kid so it’s great. I’ve always been highly motivated playing for Glasgow but it’s definitely given me more perspective and shown me what’s important in life. I’m enjoying my rugby as much as ever.”

Every Glasgow vs Edinburgh match is viewed through the prism of what it might mean for future Scotland call-ups and Kebble admitted it was brilliant to see the Warriors scrum come out on top for the most part on Friday night.

“We were warming up right behind the pack and we all went ballistic [after the first one],” he added. “It’s obviously a key part of the game against Edinburgh because whoever wins the set-piece battle will likely come out on top.

“You’ve got two Scotland front rows going against each other and it’s almost like a Scotland trial match on the sideline. I wouldn’t say we came out on top but we did well in our battles.

“We play against the same guys so as seasoned campaigners, it’s the same playing Pierre [Schoeman] and WP [Nel] as it is playing the Irish lads because you play them all the time.”

Even before he became a father, Kebble was back to being a regular presence in a Glasgow shirt after drifting out of the picture for spells last season.

“I’ve been working hard in the background but I made it clear in pre-season that I wasn’t up to speed last year,” he added. “I started well this year on the loosehead side and now I’m helping out at tighthead.

“It’s about giving back as much as I can to this club and I’ll play anywhere, maybe even No.10 next week.”