The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
South African trip for Fraser
Dundee High hooker Angus Fraser has been handed Scottish Rugby’s most prestigious scholarship which has produced three Scotland captains, including the current skipper John Barclay.
The 17-year-old High School pupil, who has starred in his first season for the FP side this year, is one of three young players who will go to South Africa for five months as part of the John Macphail Rugby Scholarship.
The programme, funded by the Robertson Trust, is now in its 13th year, the first recipient back in 2005 being Barclay, when he had just left Dollar Academy to begin his pro career. Current Scotland internationalists Grant Gilchrist, Jonny Gray, Finn Russell and Adam Ashe have all been Macphail scholars.
Until this year the programme took young players and new coaches to Canterbury in New Zealand for 15 weeks, but this year the scholarship period is longer and based at the high-performance training facility at Stellenbosch University, one of the most famous and productive in the game.
Fraser, who started minirugby at Dundee Eagles, has represented the school, the club, the BT Sport Academy and Scotland Under-18s, said he was “shaking with excitement” when he heard the news.
“I phoned my mum and dad straight away, the call came out of the blue that I had been put forward and accepted to go to South Africa,” he said.
“It’s absolutely outstanding. I can’t wait to get out there to make the most of the opportunity to really work on developing my rugby.”
The change from New Zealand to South Africa for 2017 sees the scholarship take a different approach, designed to explore new relationships and enable players to benefit over a longer period of time and keep alignment with the northern hemisphere season.
Fraser is one of three players selected this year, joined by two Biggar RFC products in centre Andrew Jardine, 18, and prop Guy Kelly.
Jardine was in the Scotland U18 training squad last year and has been playing for Melrose in the BT Premiership, while Kelly started out playing in Qatar and Dubai and has played for Biggar from Under-15s through to the seniors.
The Macphail Scholarship was established in 2005, as a partnership between the Robertson Trust and Scottish Rugby.
Created in memory of ex-Scotland internationalist (1949-1951) John Macphail, the scholarship was initially developed for talented young players. However, since 2011, it has been extended to support coaches with Mike Blair and Chris Paterson being recent recipients.
Scottish Rugby technical director Stephen Gemmell thanked the Robertson Trust and Macphail family for their continued support of Scottish Rugby.
“It allows us to send some of our most promising young players to other parts of the world to further their development in new environments, with different coaches, fresh challenges and at world-class facilities,” he said.
“The scholarship has played an important role in a number of our current professional and international players’ careers and will provide a launch pad for Angus, Andrew and Guy to accelerate their development as part of the BT Sport Scottish Rugby academy.”
Kenneth Ferguson, director of the Robertson Trust, said: “Guy, Andy and Angus have exceptional potential and I’m in no doubt all three will prove to be worthy recipients of the scholarship.
“Through the John Macphail Scholarship, The Robertson Trust has assisted in the development of some of Scotland’s brightest young rugby talent for over 13 years. We are proud of this legacy and believe the programme’s new set-up, and all the experiences it will bring, will help to accelerate the development of even more professional and international players going forward.”
I can’t wait to get out there to make the most of the opportunity to really work on developing my rugby