Four Scots, including two former Edinburgh and Scotland A players, have taken part in a sevens rugby match in the Arctic.

 

John Houston and Steven Turnbull, who played for the capital side and represented their country, Andrew Walker, from Dumfries and Fergus Davidson, from Edinburgh) were part of an 11 man squad who reached the North Pole and played the northernmost game of rugby in history.

The teams which are made up of players from all four Home Nations were led by former England players Tim Stimpson and Ollie Phillips.

Houston and Walker were in the winning side as Stimpson's squad ran out 17-14 winners against Phillips side, which contained Mr Turnbull and Mr Davidson.

Two of the polar guides, and a 'spectator' were flown in specially to be there made up the numbers to 14 - allowing a full sevens match to be played. 

The game which was refereed by Lee Mears was described by the organisers as 'closely fought' and thankfully saw no injuries.

After several days of ideal weather during their trek to the poll, they had faced their toughest conditions yet at the start of the week as the weather condition turned against them.

Temperatures during the first few days of their trek were at minus 20 degree centigrade, but that drops steeply at night to minus 30 or more. During the day, they have battled with a significant additional 'wind chill' factor.

The teams slept in tents out on the sea ice and have been consuming around 6,000 calories a day to enable their bodies to fight off the cold and battle on with the demanding trek itself.

The Arctic Rugby Challenge hopes raise over £300,000 for Wooden Spoon, the children's charity of rugby supporting disabled and disadvantaged children throughout the UK and Ireland.