rugby retires you in your early thirties. so a prop and scotland's record try scorer built the second career between test matches

The startup story begins in a shared room in 2012. Two South African teenagers — Schoeman from Nelspruit, van der Merwe from George — roomed together as under-18 players, then separately made the same 10,000-mile migration: to Edinburgh, to Scotland caps, to the Lions — van der Merwe twice. One became a cornerstone of the front row; the other became the most prolific try scorer in Scottish history — 35 in 52 Tests, one clear of Darcy Graham. The company they founded is their biography with an ABV. Hirundine is named for the swallow that semi-migrates between South Africa and the UK — "It's not a rugby whisky," Schoeman says. "It's two migrations, told in Speyside malt." The structure is the opposite of the celebrity-brand playbook. There's no licensing deal and no agency running it: the pair own Against The Grain Spirits with operator David Whiteford, it began with a whisky tasting and a cask investment, and the family runs deep — Nika van der Merwe and Charissa Schoeman lead brand and community. Two couples, one startup. The operating model is one any founder desk will recognise: drops. Six releases in 24 months — the first sold out in minutes; a perpetual £75 twelve-year-old launched on Halloween; a 370-bottle Legacy Edition, every bottle hand-signed, marking the founders' Lions summer; and February's fifteen-bottle, £2,500 38-year-old — "the 1st XV." Scarcity economics from streetwear, applied to a five-century-old category — and it has earned shelf space at The Balmoral, Gleneagles Townhouse, The Kitchin and Edinburgh Castle itself. The reason they're building now, mid-career, is the industry's quietest statistic. An RPA survey of retired players found 62% experiencing some form of mental health issue and nearly 50% in financial difficulty within the first five years — with 95% needing a second career. Van der Merwe doesn't need the survey — he's lived the precarity twice. In 2022 his club, Worcester Warriors, collapsed beneath him mid-contract; this past year, injuries cost him nine months and, for the first time, his automatic Scotland place. "This club and city are my home," he said on re-signing with Edinburgh through the 2027 World Cup — the migration completed, the second act under construction. Pierre Schoeman, co-founder: "Rugby gives you everything and then it stops, usually before you're 35, usually not on your terms. Most players start thinking about what's next when next has already arrived. We wanted to build the thing we'll walk into — and build it properly, with our own hands, while we still have the shirt." "I become emotional when I see our Hirundine being sold at Edinburgh Castle, symbolising our city and nation, Scotland," says van der Merwe. The 18 and 21-year-old core releases arrive later this year. The founders will be at Murrayfield in November either way.