TIM VISSER HAS scored 46 tries in 63 games, over three and a half seasons, for Edinburgh.
He has won the award for the RaboDirect Pro12 top try-scorer of the season for three consecutive seasons and is a prolific Sevens player.
He made his Scotland debut against Fiji on their unbeaten summer tour of Australia and the Pacific Islands.
The winger scored tries in the 36th and 72nd minutes in the ‘Fijian winter of 35 degrees’ as the Scots won 37-25.
For his next trick, Visser will try to end a 107-year rugby hoodoo.
Scotland take on New Zealand on Sunday at Murrayfield and, with Visser in the starting XV, will hope to beat them at home for the first time in 17 attempts.
Feeling at home
Visser’s journey has taken him from playing rugby in England’s public school system, to signing up with the Newcastle Falcons’ academy and securing a move to Edinburgh in an effort to realise his potential.
The 25-year-old, speaking on Total Rugby Radio, said he would not have wanted to play for his adopted country if he did not ‘feel totally at home here’.
“From the moment we moved here,” he said, “myself and my wife Laura have been welcomed.”
Visser added, “To be completely honest, sometimes when Ross Ford and Greig Laidlaw talk together I do think ‘that sounds like Dutch’.”
He explains that, as a soccer-obsessed youth, he used to take a break to watch the Six Nations on the BBC signal picked up in The Netherlands.
Beating the ABs
“It’s incredible. That’s what the big dream has been ever since I first thought I could play for Scotland.
“Coming out in front of 65,000 people will be a dream come through. Having to sit back for the past three years, watching teammates pulling on the blue jersey, would be incredible.
“I could not have imagined that I would get to this [moment] back in the day.”
Visser and new international teammates will hope the scintillating form of their newly-acquired Dutchman can inspire them to a history-making afternoon at Murrayfield.
