Logan's run brings rugby star to Canary Wharf

He said: "The pressure on the players to perform week-in, week-out is higher and Harlequins have taken it to a new level by putting pressure on themselves. What they did was wrong, simple as that. There's no easy way out of it.

"There were certain instances, such as Neil Back admitting cheating for Leicester in the Heineken Cup Final when he used his hand in the scrum, or tackling people off the ball that are part of the sport. But bringing something into the sport to cheat is wrong. Harlequins have paid the price for that and they may pay more than just the fine.

"It's sad they have brought the game into disrepute but if they say every club's at it, then they should name them. At Wasps I never saw a blood capsule. I saw them in joke shops but never, ever, with Scotland or Wasps, so if they claim everyone's at it let's hear who they are."

Logan, 37, won 70 caps for Scotland, putting him 7th in his country's appearance list, and enjoyed a glittering nine year career at London Wasps where he played alongside the likes of Josh Lewsey and Lawrence Dalllaglio.

But the rugby career is only part of his story, or life journey as he prefers to put it.

The son of a farmer, Logan was forced to take over the running of the farm at the age of just 19, while he was emerging as one of Scotland's brightest young rugby talents.

His dual role is all the more remarkable because he suffered from dyslexia, a condition which meant he did not learn to read or write until he was 30 years old. It forms the core narrative of his autobiography, Just For Kicks.

He said: "I never wanted to bring a rugby book out. There's a lot of good stuff in it but it touches on a lot more than being a rugby player, even though rugby and sport in general has been brilliant for me. I don't know what I would have done without rugby.

"Conquering dyslexia eclipses all the sport achievements from a long-term point of view. Short-term rugby was brilliant, playing for your country, playing for Wasps, but I don't want that to be the best thing I've ever done.

"Life is full of journeys and if you think that's the best thing you've done, then you're finished. One thing my dad said to me was you never stop learning.

"Then, one day he said to me 'I think I'm ready to stop learning', and two days later he died. That was quite weird.

Logan hopes his book, which deals with the problems dyslexia caused him over the years, will help other sufferers feel more confident about addressing the issue.

He said: "I'm very passionate about helping children. The thing for me is there are a lot of children and adults with issues who are too scared.

"Sometimes when you come out and talk about them it gives you a lot of relief because you just feel you've got it off your chest and people understand you.

"For a lot of children and adults they are holding something back and people don't understand them. You have to pour everything out. There are certain things in the work environment or when you are growing up you have to speak about and dyslexia is something 15-20 per cent of people have got issues with, learning problems and concentration problems.

"Hopefully I can inspire lots of children and adults to either do something about it or talk to someone.

"I didn't actually confront it until I was about 30. I wanted to inspire them to get through life and talk about things you've got issues with."

He revealed he had ways of avoiding people becoming aware of the fact he couldn't read or write.

He said: "I had coping strategies. It was the simple things like filling in a form.

"I remember going to get my knee scanned and they asked me to fill in a form. I went like that and said I had a really bad hand. They said was I left handed and I said yes, even though I was right handed.

"When I started the learning programme and filled in a form I was so proud of myself because I was 30-years-old. It's so silly.

"It was the same when I learned my vowels at 33. Being able to break down a word made me so proud. Even if I didn't get it, the next time I would.

"Sometimes when I read now and am flowing away I get so excited when I realise I've not stopped for three pages. That's brilliant. It's quite a novelty."

Dyslexia didn't stop Logan having a very successful career on the pitch, and plenty of attention off it, including high profile romances with newsreader Kirsty Young and presenter Gabby Yorath, to whom he is now married.

He played for Scotland during the period when rugby turned professional and he feels the game in his native country lagged behind the rest, hence their poor showing in recent international competitions.

He said: "We won the Five Nations in 1999 and that was huge, to win something with Scotland.

"But Scottish rugby has done Jack-all since then. We've won a couple of big games but we didn't really build on that opportunity. That's when the game was really starting to head strongly into professionalism and we didn't really get it.

"We're slowly getting it now but we're well behind everybody."

Despite the benefits of professionalism, not least the money, Logan believes something special was lost when the amateur days disappeared.

He said: "We used to have a contract business, moving earth out of gardens with diggers, building extensions, that sort of thing.

"What was the weirdest thing was playing for Scotland against England at Murrayfield or Twickenham and the next day jumping into a tractor and heading to somebody's farm to plough their field.

"They would be standing there gaping because they were at Murrayfield at the weekend and couldn't believe I'm ploughing their field. You don't get that any more and I did like that.

"We'd turn up and they'd gasp because they'd been at the rugby on Saturday. Now you only get that in Starbucks."

Logan took a different direction last year when he appeared on Strictly Come Dancing alongside television presenter wife Gabby. He admitted he hasn't kept up his terpsichorean skills since, keeping himself busy organising a charity event, Logan's Challenge, on October 10.

He said: "It's to raise money for the Sparks charity. I hope to get people off their bottoms and into training. It's for teams of four, two do the cycle, two do the run. It'll be a good day out and a lot of fun."

For details visit loganschallenge.com.