GLASGOW — Rowan Stevenson stood in the airport arrivals hall with a tray of Tennent’s Lager and Irn Bru. He was not there for himself. His brother Rory, 21, was somewhere behind the customs doors, coming home from a World Cup that ended in defeat and a manager’s resignation.
The beer was a tactical move. “The boys had been complaining about the beer in America,” Rowan said.
He figured they needed help to re-integrate. Rory and his friend Callum Hand, also 21, had just graduated from Edinburgh University with degrees in finance and economics. Their three-week trip to the World Cup was not just a football holiday.
It was a graduation blow-out. Callum called it that himself: “This was a bit of a blow-out but we decided to treat it as one big graduation party.” The timing matters.
They left university and went straight to the tournament. Now they are back. The job market waits.
Rory said the trip was “unbelievable, just one long party.” He called it an incredible experience. But the party is over. The hangover is real.
It is not just the physical kind from American beer. The Tartan Army foot soldiers are touching down on home soil Monday.
They swap party heads for work and laundry. That is the technical reality of reintegration, as one student put it. These are young people marking a transition.
They saved cash for this odyssey. They believe it was well spent.
Now they face the grind. Under the hood of the celebration lies the sting of defeat. Scotland lost their commander in chief.
Manager Steve Clarke resigned after the team’s exit. The World Cup ride ended bitter. For Rory and Callum, the trip cost a pretty penny.
They do not regret it. But the return is stark.
Rowan met the flight from New York with a tactical resupply. The troops had been complaining about the quality of American beer. He thought they needed a nice Scottish welcome.
“They’ve had the time of their lives but I thought they might need a bit of help to re-integrate themselves,” Rowan said. Rory agreed.
“We did moan a bit about the beer out there so it was nice of Rowan to think of us like that.” The airport scene captures a generation. Young Scots who spent their savings on a dream trip. Who partied through three weeks.
Who now come home to a different reality. No more World Cup. No more manager.
No more party. Just the hangover and the job hunt.
The Tartan Army returns to reality. The foot soldiers are back. The beer is Scottish again.
The laundry piles up.
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