A NEW year brings excitement to many for a number of different reasons – and Scotland’s best BT Premiership players are looking forward to being part of the Club XV squad.
They will travel to Birmingham Moseley for a fixture against England Counties on Friday, February 24 with a home fixture to be confirmed at a later date.
Over the festive period the extended training squad met up for their first sessions under the watchful eye of head coach Phil Smith, the Heriot’s main man who is once again taking on the role.
Ayr lead the way with nine players involved while Melrose have eight in the party and Heriot’s five.
Currie have three, Glasgow Hawks and Boroughmuir two apiece and Gala one in the shape of Gregor Hunter. The only BT Premiership clubs not represented are Watsonians, Stirling County and Hawick.
Since the Club XV came into being in 2006 it has proved a great success and given semi-pro and amateur players the chance to show what they have to offer.
For example Moray Low played in the first Club XV match with Ireland 11 years ago and he has since gone on to earn 37 full caps for Scotland.
Others like Alex Allan, Fraser Brown, Lee Jones, Steve Lawrie, Hamish Watson and Jon Welsh have followed the same path.
In this year’s squad there are experienced campaigners like Ayr’s Ross Curle (seven Club XV caps) and Melrose’s Fraser Thomson (11 Club XV caps), but there are also a number of players searching for a debut.
Amongst them are Robbie Nelson of Currie, Callum Marshall of Heriot’s and Steven Longwell of Ayr.
Growing up in Glencoe for Robbie Nelson, there was not much local structured rugby. But he joined Lochaber when he was in his early teens and then played for Highland. A move to Edinburgh to study then followed and there he found more opportunities.
“At first I just turned out for the university side on a Wednesday afternoon," Nelson said. "But a few of my friends were beginning to head down to Currie about four years ago and so I went along too.
“In 2013/14 I played some games for the second XV there and also had a spell at Kelso, which was good. When the next season rolled around a few injuries gave me a chance in the first XV, and I have not looked back since.
“Ben Cairns [Currie head coach] obviously played at a very high level and earned Scotland caps so to be able to learn from him about centre play is great.”
Since he moved from Selkirk to Heriot’s last summer, Callum Marshall has been one of the most consistent players in the top flight.
Until 2016 the back-row, who is now playing a lot at second-row for Heriot’s, had been with Selkirk from his youth days. However, he works in Edinburgh and was keen for a new challenge.
“I have loved my time with Heriot’s so far,” the 26-year-old said. “Coming into a squad that had won the treble in 2015/16 was a little bit daunting, but the guys made me feel at home right away and the coaches at the club set high standards so everyone trains hard and is pushing for places.
“I have played more second-row this season because we have such a strong back-row at the club and I have enjoyed that challenge.
“Getting the Club XV call was a surprise and has given me something to aim for in the early part of 2017.”
Prop Longwell, 26, has previously played for Dundee HSFP in the British & Irish Cup and since he moved to Ayr a few seasons ago his game has come on a lot.
He has also played for Hillhead/Jordanhill and West of Scotland over the years and said: “All of my Ayr team-mates who have been involved in the Club XV before say that it is a great experience and I am looking forward to testing myself and trying to get into the matchday squad for the England match.
“It has made it a bit easier to fit in because there are a number of my club-mates around the squad, but I am looking forward to getting to know the guys from the other clubs too.”
Scotland Club XV squad
Ayr: Steven Longwell, Robert McAlpine, Blair Macpherson, Will Bordill, Pete McCallum, David Armstrong, Ross Curle, Archie Russell, Craig Gossman.
Melrose: Russell Anderson, Jamie Bhatti, Neil Irvine-Hess, Grant Runciman, Iain Moody, Murdo McAndrew, George Taylor, Fraser Thomson.
Heriot’s: Michael Liness, Struan Cessford, Murray McCallum, Russell Nimmo, Callum Marshall.
Currie: Fergus Scott, Robbie Nelson, Harvey Elms.
Glasgow Hawks: Tommy Spinks, Kerr Gossman.
Boroughmuir: Chris Laidlaw, Jordan Edmunds.
Gala: Gregor Hunter.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here