George Turner admitted he could never have imagined winning 50 caps for Scotland as the Harlequins hooker prepares for his landmark appearance against Tonga in the final Test of the autumn series on Sunday.
The 33-year-old appeared to have ended his international career when he left Glasgow to move to Japan for the 2024-25 campaign.
But Turner returned to the mix in the summer after moving back to the UK to sign for Harlequins and is now relishing his first Murrayfield start since March 2024 after substitute outings in the defeats by New Zealand and Argentina.
“I never really thought I’d get anywhere near something like this, I’m really looking forward to doing it,” the forward said in a Scottish Rugby interview.
“The last couple of weeks, a couple of other boys (Darcy Graham and Duhan van der Merwe) have had their 50th cap and they’re huge big players.
Scotland
Tonga
“It’s really cool that I’ve also made that achievement. Initially, I never thought I’d get there, but in the last couple of years, it’s definitely been a goal and a target to hit, and seeing a lot of boys getting it and those special games and days have been really cool.
“Obviously, I missed a few games last season with being away, but then getting back on the summer tour and then watching the first game back here in Murrayfield (against the United States), watching that with my son was really special.
“I missed that feeling of coming out to play here and I’m really excited to be able to do that.”
Turner made his debut against Samoa in 2017 and counts his second cap against New Zealand as well as the 2021 victories away to England and France among his highlights.
He added: “I loved playing rugby growing up and I get a lot of people talk about how they dreamed of doing it (playing for Scotland), but I just never thought it would happen.
“Each camp and each time I got involved before I started playing, I was just so happy to be there learning and training and being in that environment. Then obviously getting those caps and getting involved, you just want more.
“You never sit back and think, ‘Oh, I’ll get loads of these’. Each one is really special and it’s really cool being involved.”
Turner will be joined in the front row on Sunday by his former Glasgow team-mate Zander Fagerson, who will make his first appearance since April following calf and knee problems.
“He’s trained two weeks now, so he seems ready,” said head coach Gregor Townsend. “We train pretty full-on, so he’s had scrums this week, we’ve had a lot of live tackling.
“He was good the previous week but obviously we didn’t want to take any risk with him on the back of one full week’s training, but now he’s had two weeks’ training, he should be good to go.”