The finest Scottish Club rugby talent (and Alan Dymock) have been selected for a warm up tonight at Murrayfield against Peter Wright’s Under 20s squad, ahead of a series of matches shadowing the Six Nations, including matches against similar sides from France and Ireland.
Whilst often seen as a rare opportunity for amateurs to represent their country at rugby, the Club International team can also act as a springboard to higher (or at least better paid) honours; several of the faces from last year’s squad such as Scott Wight, Matt Scott, Finlay Gillies and Tom Brown have since made it into the Scottish pro-teams.
The Club International pack sees the return from last year of one of the pillars upon which this website is founded (he told me to write this) Alan Dymock at loosehead, and a number of previous regulars (Rory Mckay, Ross Weston) and familiar faces such as former Edinburgh man Sean Crombie. There is no representation in the squad from Dundee however, despite them having the most dominant pack in the league this season.
The backline offers a mix of experience and youthful excitement with sometime Edinburgh man Gregor Hunter and Melrose fullback Fraser Thomson alongside new faces like Aberdeen man Callum Anderson called in to the team by head coach Ally Donaldson. The centre pairing of Dean Kelbrick and Ross Curle is the same that faced Ireland in the narrow defeat last year.
Also, if you are wondering why the aforementioned AD has been pretty quiet this week, he is on self-imposed Rory Lamont-style media lockdown, having been called on as cover for Glasgow’s Heineken Cup squad for the (non-televised) pool game at Bath. No word yet on if he’ll be required during this Prop Emergency but congratulations to him if he is given the call. And you thought he spent all his time tweeting…
Scotland Club International XV: F Thomson (Melrose), C Anderson (Aberdeen), R Curle (Ayr), D Kelbrick (Glasgow Hawks), J Johnstone (Currie), G Hunter (Gala), R Sneddon (Currie); A Dymock (Heriot’s), S Crombie (Boroughmuir, capt), G Mountford (Stirling Co), S Sutherland (Ayr), R McKay (Glasgow Hawks), G Dodds (Melrose), A Rose (Boroughmuir), R Weston (Currie).
Replacements: F Brown (Heriot’s), J Cox (Currie), G Holborn (Melrose), C White (Ayr), R McAlpine (Stirling Co), R Colhouln (Ayr), G Graham (Gala), A Skeen (Melrose), G Anderson (Ayr), L Miller (Gala), D Gilmour (Stirling Co)
3 Responses
Anyone know what the U20s team looks like? Would be interesting to see if Leonard and Hunter are going head to head.
And congrats to that Dundonian Donkey
Word has reached my ears on the result from last night, so there might be something on it up later. From the sounds of it both squads did a lot of rotating, but Leonard was playing.
There is a report on the SRU site here: http://www.scotlandrugbyteam.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2788&Itemid=9