Rugby League star off to the World Cup
It’s been almost 20 years since Scottish footballers have had the chance to parade their skills at the World Cup.
But a young man from Causewayhead is currently gearing up to take part in his second global event – at the age of 24.
And David Scott goes into the Rugby League World Cup full of confidence after scooping four end-of-season awards with his team Batley Bulldogs.
David and the rest of the Scotland squad are in the Southern Hemisphere for the tournament, which is being hosted by Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. They start their campaign against Tonga on Sunday and follow that up with games against New Zealand on November 4 and Samoa on November 11. Batley. He has 13 Scotland caps after making his debut at 18 and in 2013 Scott was part of the squad who played in the World Cup in England.
They topped Group C and won an inter-group match with the USA before losing out to New Zealand in the last eight.
He told our sister paper the Sunday Mail:“Then we were a bit unknown but now other teams give us more respect.
“As a group we are now used to more high-quality matches and have a lot of confidence.
“If we stick together then we believe we can do our families and our country proud in the next few weeks.”
Scotland head into the event ranked fourth in the world thanks to fine recent results including an 18-18 draw with New Zealand last November.
Without a number of their likely starters, they lost 50-14 to a New South Wales Country Under 23s in a warm-up game with David notching one of the tries.
He is in the Southern Hemisphere on the back of a trophy-laden season with the Bulldogs when he landed the club’s Independent Player of the Year, Supporters Club Player Of The Year and Bulldogs Forum Members Player of the Year.
He also received the club Player of the Year award from head coach Matt Diskin.
David said: ”For fans to vote to give me three awards is amazing. Week after week our lads come onto the pitch and give it our best shot.
“We have some excellent players in the squad, so for fans to vote to present these awards to me means a lot.
“To be honest, if it were not for the fans, we would not have the resources to play the sport.
“So I would like to give a special thanks to all of them.”
We can do our families and our country proud