Jack Dempsey: Scotland’s Best Forward, But ‘Not Worth Talking To’
I knew Jack Dempsey was a little bit different from the very first conversation I had with him. It was clear from the start that he was a force to be reckoned with on the rugby field, but his personality was just as intriguing.
In February 2021, when it was announced that the back-rower would be moving from the Waratahs to Glasgow Warriors that summer, I managed to source his number from a Sydney contact. My speculative text about doing an interview got an instant thumbs up, and so half an hour after the initial approach, he was holding court.
About 20 seconds into the call, Dempsey told me he was going to bring a touch of Rocky Elsom to Scotstoun and the wider European game. The same Rocky Elsom whose series of standout displays in the Leinster back row was the driving force for their first Champions Cup title in 2009.
"I’m going to bring a few things that the fans in Glasgow and Scotland maybe haven’t seen before around footwork, hand-offs, and offloads," Dempsey continued, before segueing into the yarn of how a literal accident of birth ended up with him assuming the moniker of an American former heavyweight world champion.
Dempsey was born in Sydney and plied his trade for the NSW Waratahs before moving to Scotland. "My real name is John," he clarified. "It only took two minutes when my mum went into labour. I came out pretty quickly, whacked my head on the way out, and came out with two black eyes. With the Dempseys being a big boxing family, a big sports family in general, my dad saw the black eyes and goes, 'We’ll keep his name as John, but call him Jack.' It’s always been a fun little story to tell."
Dempsey, 31, has sure lived up to his own billing, instantly cementing himself as a favourite with team-mates and supporters alike through a style that blends pugnaciousness and panache. He was a key figure in Glasgow’s epic URC title win two years ago and an equally big reason why they went through this season’s Champions Cup pool phase with a perfect record and booked a home route to the final.
When he first arrived on these shores, Scotland was not on his radar. The SRU was well aware of his Scottish roots through his late maternal grandfather; indeed, in 2017, Murrayfield’s director of rugby Scott Johnson made an approach. But when Dempsey was capped by his native Australia later that year, the door seemed to have closed.
It creaked back open in late 2021, when World Rugby announced that players could switch allegiance to another country with whom they have a credible blood link, provided they had served a three-year stand-down period.
The 31-year-old has suffered from various injury problems but, when fit, is a standout pick for club and country. With the most recent of Dempsey’s 14 Wallaby caps—all of them won under Elsom’s old Leinster coach Michael Cheika—having come at the 2019 World Cup, he made his Scotland debut in the 2022 autumn Tests. The opponents? Australia, of course.
When fit—and he missed much of last season with shoulder, foot, and hamstring injuries—Dempsey is an automatic pick for club and country at the heart of the back row; a prime purveyor of both the crash-bang-wallop and some softer skills.
"I think when I first came [in 2022], in the beginning, I challenged him a little bit more than other coaches may have done, but he adapted well and took up that challenge," Franco Smith, the Warriors head coach, says.
"He was always a very good physical athlete, but he’s worked hard to apply himself constantly. His numbers of positive actions in a game have improved so much, to the point where he’s a constant threat around the park. It doesn’t matter what time the clock says. That’s where I think he’s become much more effective."
"I feel there’s a little bit more control about him now too. I feel like he’s matured—not that he was immature, but it looks like he’s maturing in terms of his decision-making with the ball in hand; when to offload and when not to. His continuity in the game is very good because he’s making so many good decisions with the ball in hand. And he’s as effective without the ball."
Dempsey’s club coach, Smith, describes his abilities in contact as a vital strength to his game.
"That’s one of our big emphases here at Glasgow, and he really took to it. He already had good feet, but his contact-evasion skills have grown, and his ability beyond contact makes him the special player that he is. Before contact, he’s very good, but it’s in contact where he gets the ball away that is a real strength of his game."
Fittingly for someone with a pugilistic background, Dempsey is a man you want in your corner. "People could take him as being quite arrogant, but it’s a good thing if you’re his team-mate," one club and country colleague says. "You know that when he goes out, he’s going to be absolutely set on being better than anyone in the other team, especially his opposite man. To him, it’s kind of ego-driven, and you see that in his mannerisms of how he plays. He’s very confident, very abrasive, and, yes, arrogant. It’s all a 'man test' to him."
Dempsey is renowned for being his own man. A number of team-mates describe him as 'odd,' 'weird,' 'a loner,' but this player has a slightly more nuanced take. "Demmo is very singular, very individual," he says. "You figure out very quickly that he doesn’t mind silence if you’re in his company. You don’t have to say 'Good morning' to him. He won’t take it personally, and if you do say it, he’s either going to grunt or not say anything back to you, so it’s not really worth it."
"I figured out within the first couple of weeks that it’s not even worth trying to have a conversation with him because he likely isn’t interested. It could come across as rude, but if you just give him his own space or don’t take it personally, it’s fine. The only person that really gets anything out of him is Nonz [Sione Tuipulotu], or if you’re talking about American football. That’s the only time I really speak to him, but I’d always want him on my team."
Dempsey has said he believes it’s harder to win the Six Nations than the World Cup. Last year, he took reporters through a detailed case for it being harder to win the Six Nations than the World Cup, while his depiction of Edinburgh as the 'little brother' to Glasgow’s 'big brother' before the recent 1872 Cup derbies sparked paroxysms of pearl-clutching inside the famously risk-averse SRU. "There is that level of ferociousness and hatred, definitely," Dempsey continued, before clarifying: "It’s just not personal."
Unsurprisingly, he has not been on the media rotation in advance of the Calcutta Cup. But England can expect to hear from him, and it will be music to Scottish ears.
Scotland vs. England
Murrayfield, Saturday, February 14
Kick-off: 4:40 pm
TV: ITV1
