Advertisement Horse Racing TV Listings GAA Fixtures Behind the Lines Sportswriters discuss their careers and the work that inspires them. Rugby Weekly Extra Dive into all the news and analysis 3 times a week The Football Family Weekly insights from the week’s big talking points Advertisement More Stories Tommy Seymour played for Scotland 55 times, scoring 20 tries. road less travelled The ex-Ireland U19 and Ulster wing who made it big with Scotland Tommy Seymour is working with Scottish Rugby after retiring from playing in 2021. 7.31am, 9 Feb 2025 Share options TODAY IS GAME day for Tommy Seymour at Murrayfield, even if it’s very different to when he played on the wing for Scotland. The 36-year-old retired from international duty following the 2019 World Cup and then hung up his boots for good in 2021, ending a career that included playing for the Ireland U19s, Ulster, Glasgow Warriors, Scotland, and the British & Irish Lions. He’s a sponsorship sales manager for Scottish Rugby now, so his job this afternoon is to host the union’s partners and sponsors, making sure they have a good experience and want to come back for more. Whereas he used to wake up thinking about tries and tackles, he’s now planning for tunnel tours and changing room visits. When he first retired from playing, Seymour wanted to detach himself from Scotland and Glasgow games. But that has changed in the last couple of years. Now he’s back feeling the passion. “I’ve been able to move to the other side of becoming a fan again because for the first while, you’re in that purgatory state of not really knowing where you belong,” says Seymour. He loves his role in the commercial side of rugby, having spent his first year out of the game working as a player agent. Seymour felt terrible about leaving players he had built relationships with but there was a “little red light in the back of my head” telling him agency wasn’t the career for him. That he is still working in Scottish Rugby is all part of Seymour’s fascinating journey from Nashville, Tennessee to Tyrella, County Down to Glasgow. He played in two Rugby World Cups, as well as an U19 World Cup with Ireland, won the Pro12 with Glasgow, scored four tries on the 2017 Lions tour, and bagged 20 tries in 55 Scotland caps. But the modest way Seymour tells it, he’s still pinching himself. “I’m beyond lucky that I got to do it,” says Seymour. “I should never have been a rugby player or had the opportunity to do it for as long as I did. “I was one of the biggest beneficiaries of luck and finding the right environment. I was in the right place at the right time so many times. My fortune is not so much down to me but the people around me.” He was born in Nashville, his parents having wanted to experience living in the US. Seymour spent the first eight years of his life there and loved the American affinity towards sport. He played basketball, soccer, gymnastics, and whatever else was going. His father Ian’s work in manufacturing brought the family to Dubai for a stint before that career saw them land in Northern Ireland when Tommy was 10. It was tough moving as a kid but he’s grateful now for how it opened his eyes to the wider world. The parish of Tyrella on the coast of County Down proved to be a perfect landing spot because Seymour soon took to rugby. He started in Ballynahinch RFC but really got the bug when he went to Down High School. Seymour scoring for Ulster in 2011.Presseye / Matt Mackey/INPHO Presseye / Matt Mackey/INPHO / Matt Mackey/INPHO It’s not a huge rugby school – Ulster wing Zac Ward is its latest star – but Seymour loved those days. “Winning the lowest competition, the Schools Trophy, was truly, along with the Pro12, one of the best rugby memories in my life,” says Seymour. That final was when Seymour was spotted. Neil Doak, now the Ireland U20s boss but working for the Ulster academy back then, literally collared Seymour after Down High School’s win over Lurgan. Name? Date of birth? Off you go. “I was just a small kid in an ill-fitting scrum cap,” says Seymour. “That was the start of the Ireland U19s year that he started supporting me. Doaky was the catapult for all of it. Advertisement “By his own admission, he can come across as a stern character but I owe him so much and there aren’t many people I’ve enjoyed working with more. I cannot thank him enough for everything he did for me.” At one stage in that final season at school, Seymour suffered a bad shoulder injury. He was ruled out for a few months. There were no physios in school and Seymour had no idea what to do for rehab. But Doak would drive 35 minutes to pick Seymour up from his house at 6am, drive him over an hour up to road to the University of Jordanstown where Seymour would see the Ulster academy physio before Doak would drive him back to school. This happened once or twice a week for months when Seymour wasn’t even in the Ulster academy yet. “That just shows the level of commitment he has to players and how much he cares,” says Seymour, who credits Gary Longwell as another big influence. “That’s what I mean about having the support of the right people along your journey.” Seymour shone for the Ireland U19s and earned a place in the Ulster academy, eventually making his senior debut for the province in 2010 when he started on the wing against the Ospreys. He got a big chance when he played against Munster in Thomond Park on New Year’s Day 2011 and it wasn’t long after that when Seymour got word that Scotland were interested in him. The Scots had figured out that Seymour was eligible for them thanks to his Glasgow-born mother, Sue, although he had never previously had contact with Scottish Rugby nor reached out to them. Simultaneously, it was becoming clear that Seymour’s future at Ulster was in doubt. He was fighting with the likes of close friend Craig Gilroy to earn a contract in a position of strength for the province. He ended up being the one to miss out. Winning the Pro12 with Glasgow was a major career highlight.Ryan Byrne / INPHO Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO Seymour played for Ulster seven times in total before departing in the summer of 2011 and only looks back with fondness. “I reflect on that time without any sort of bitterness or annoyance,” he says. “How could I because my ending with Ulster was the birth of my Glasgow career. I look at Ulster as a really enjoyable moment in time that gave me the drive to know I wanted to be a rugby player. “I loved it in Ulster. The academy back then was far more rough and ready, they weren’t anywhere near what academies are to their clubs now. I had some great coaches and we were like a brotherhood. We lived together, trained with each other, and came through together. I had the best fun.” In his last year, he lived in a house with Gilroy among others. “Craig and I were competing for the same spots, the same contracts but we had the best fun and we’ve always been ultra-supportive of each other.” So Seymour pitched up in Glasgow and was quickly starting all their big games in the Pro12 and Heineken Cup, initially under Sean Lineen before Gregor Townsend – who had been instrumental in Scottish Rugby going after Seymour – took over in 2012. That was the start of a special journey for Glasgow as they built towards their Pro12 success in 2015, beating Munster in the final in Belfast with a thrilling team that also included Finn Russell and Leone Nakarawa. “That goes down as a peak,” says Seymour. “Winning a trophy is a rarity for a lot of people in their career. And we did it with guys who felt like a family. Look, sport is a business as well so calling things a family can be a little bit treacherous. You don’t cut your brother like you cut a player. “But in terms of how we bonded together over the course of the season, even over a number of years with Gregor, that felt really amazing. We’d built to something. We were the first Scottish club side to do it and that’s a massive highlight.” Seymour had made his Scotland debut in the summer of 2013, starting against the Springboks in South Africa before his first home appearance followed that autumn when he scored his first two Test tries against Japan. He played against Ireland five times – starting the Scots’ most recent win against the Irish in 2017 – but never found it a strange experience. Playing against Ulster in his earliest days with Glasgow was odder. His very first competitive game for the Warriors was against Ulster and Seymour was forced off injured, but he did bag a try in the season opener against his old province a year later. “I’m proud to say this and I hope he reads this, I did Gilly [Craig Gilroy] to get in for my first try of the season. He had already intercepted one earlier in the game so it was nice to get one back on him.” Seymour and his children at a Glasgow game in 2023.James Crombie / INPHO James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO Seymour never had any mixed feelings about representing Scotland after coming through the Irish system and playing for the Ireland U19s. He says he didn’t move to Glasgow with any guarantee he would be capped, but by the time his debut rolled around, he knew it was what he wanted. “Playing for Scotland felt right, it was what I was meant to do,” says Seymour. “I felt Scottish and I feel Scottish. That was down to the people and the underdog nature that they operated under. I had been surplus to requirements leaving Ulster, so there was a marrying-up effect. I didn’t grow up in Scotland but my mum was born in this country and it felt right.” His mother was naturally delighted to be able to roar her son on in the Scottish jersey. Seymour’s wife, Katy, who hails from Northern Ireland, supported the Scots while he was playing but has now gravitated back towards the Irish team. Tommy still has friends all over Ireland, his sister lives in Naas, and County Down always has a special place in his heart. His seven-year-old son and five-year-old daughter are Scotland fans, though, with the jerseys to prove it. Seymour was only 31 when he retired from international rugby and still just 32 when he called time on his Glasgow career. Being around his family more was one of the reasons he decided to move on from being a professional rugby player. “In truth, I made some decisions purely based on off-the-field reasons which cemented the idea that I wanted to retire when I did,” he says. “The way I would put it is that in my off-field life, the deck got reshuffled, my priorities shifted and changed. How I saw rugby and the rest of my life, there was a shift in importance. “Rugby is all-encompassing. You can’t be one foot in, one foot out. That’s not fair to you, your team-mates, your partner, whoever. If you’re not fully committed, you’re doing people a disservice because it is a lifestyle, not just a job.” Scotland’s pool-stage exit at the 2019 World Cup meant it “certainly stung a little bit more” to step away, while his desire to give Glasgow one last season of committed service in 2020/21 was ruined by Covid-19. But there hasn’t been a single day when he has regretted stepping away from rugby when he did. All he feels when he looks back is gratitude. “As a winger, I wasn’t special,” says Seymour. “I wasn’t a Duhan van der Merwe or Darcy Graham or Kyle Steyn. I wasn’t any of that. I was someone that got a bit of luck off the back of hard work and the skill of the people inside me. I ended up in a wonderful space with wonderful people and got some five-metre run-ins. “It’s the people that I miss in a friendship way and a playing way. 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