Stirling No 15 Sorbie earns South Africa training stint

Promising Stirling County full-back Bruce Sorbie has been given the opportunity to continue his development with a stint in South Africa as part of a new SRU exchange project.

The BT Sport Scottish Rugby Academy player has embarked on a fivemonth rugby scholarship to the famous Stellenbosch Academy of Sport in South Africa’s Western Cape.

It is a similar initiative to the successful John Macphail scholarship, which has benefited the likes of John Barclay (2005), Kevin Bryce (2007), Grant Gilchrist (2011), Jonny Gray (2012), Finn Russell (2013) and Adam Ashe (2014), with months spent honing their skills in New Zealand.

The SRU said: “The initial period of the programme will focus on his individual and position-specific development before he teams up with fellow academy players for six to eight matches against other academies and age-grade sides in South Africa.”

Sorbie said: “I feel really privileged to be given this opportunity by the BT Sport Academy.

“It’s come at the ideal time given that I’d taken this year out to concentrate on my rugby.

“I’m really looking to kick on all aspects of my game. It’s a great environment to be in and the perfect opportunity to get better.”

Sorbie took up the sport at Robert Gordon’s College in Aberdeen before embarking on his club career with Aberdeenshire in 2014 and moving to GHA a year later to accompany his study at Glasgow University.

He has since opted to put his studies on hold to pursue a career in the sport, signing for BT Premiership side Stirling County in September.

The SRU’S academy chief Stephen Gemmell said: “This opportunity is part of Bruce’s individual development plan, with the key areas of focus driven by Academy staff in Glasgow, hosted in a nation which has consistenlty developed world-class players. It’s a great chance for one of our young players to be exposed to another high-performance environment.”