Ruaridh Jackson: Young, gifted and back

WHEN YOU hear that a player has been fast-tracked into the Scotland squad after starting exactly one game of professional rugby all season you would be forgiven for thinking that the man in question is a gnarled old veteran whose worth has been established beyond any doubt over the course of many seasons. You'd be wrong.

The player chosen is the fresh-faced Glasgow fly-half Ruaridh Jackson, whose one and only start to date came in the Heineken win over the Dragons last weekend. He started but he didn't finish the match. Other than that he has come off the bench for Glasgow twice, once in the opening match of the season when he lasted precisely one minute before dislocating his shoulder in the act of scoring and more recently he got six minutes as a replacement against Edinburgh. In fact, Jackson hasn't even played one entire match; instead he has racked up just 57 minutes of professional rugby this season.

It's not an ideal situation but it's one that he has already experienced. Exactly one year ago Frank Hadden included the same player in his Six Nations squad after Jackson had enjoyed just one start in Glasgow's colours. The fly-half might be pondering just what sort of progress he's made in the last 12 months when today's headline writers are borrowing exactly the same words they used back in January of 2009.

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He's been there before but even so the 21-year-old must have been a little surprised to get the call this time round.

"It did come as a bit of a shock to me after starting just one game," Jackson agrees, "although I came off the bench against Edinburgh and what not. It's a shame that the Leinster match got cancelled because that would have given me more game time. I'm on the bench on Sunday afternoon so hopefully I'll get a run out against Biarritz and show what I can do.

"I've always been kept in the loop throughout my injury and when I was coming back. I've spoken to (Scotland coach] Andy (Robinson] and (his assistant] Gregor (Townsend] on a regular basis. I know I've been in their thoughts and they're keen to keep me involved, it's just a shock after one game to be there or thereabouts."

Jackson is probably more thereabouts than there, at least for now. Still, he has a better chance of making his international debut in the coming weeks under Robinson that he did last time out. One year ago the closest Jackson got to a Test match was the Twickenham stand after he'd travelled to the Calcutta Cup as the non-playing reserve. This year he is more likely to start the Scotland 'A' game against Ireland in Belfast on 5 February than face France two days later but he could still be involved in the full Scotland squad at some point during this Six Nations campaign.

Before he can contemplate his international debut Jackson and his Glasgow team mates have the unenviable task of beating Biarritz in France this afternoon in their final Heineken Cup pool match. Les Biarrots are already in the last eight but a win over the Warriors will guarantee them the precious advantage of a home draw in the quarter-finals. The French giants are clear favourites, everywhere other than the Glasgow camp.

"We want to be really competitive," insists Jackson, who starts the game on the bench. "We don't want to go over there and put on a show for them, we want to win the game. That's our goal and we have the confidence to do it after beating Toulouse in France last year. Hopefully we'll do it again. We've got a winning mentality in this Glasgow squad."

He repeats this phrase or variants of it at regular intervals; "winning mentality" and "winning culture" pop up repeatedly as if just saying it often enough will make it so. It's obviously the buzzword of the day in the Glasgow camp since it is also parroted at a press conference by coach Sean Lineen and skipper Al Kellock but there is still some truth in it. Glasgow have lost just one of their last eight matches and Lineen is fielding his strongest XV in France. This afternoon would be a good time to prove that the Heineken Cup victory in Toulouse last season was more than just the rugby miracle that some claimed at the time.

For his part Jackson comes across as a hugely confident young man on the pitch although he proves a little more hesitant in civilian life. The stand-off readily admits to nerves before the big games, while adding the obvious rider that anyone who isn't nervous is either dead or in the wrong job. It was against Bath in last year's Heineken Cup that the youngster made his name with an eye-popping performance that had Sky's Stuart Barnes calling for him to be promoted to the Scotland match day squad there and then, and that commentator knows a thing or two about fly-half play.

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"I guess as a ten you've got to come across as confident, have a bit of a swagger about you," says Jackson. "I believe in my abilities and that's where I get my confidence from and hopefully that confidence comes across on the pitch. It was a bit nerve-racking at first shouting at all these stars that I've watched for years but I have the confidence now.

"I believe in my abilities and if I get a regular run of matches then I can prove that I can do these things. In that game against Bath I tried a lot of things and they came off. I go into matches with the attitude that I want to try things, I want to express myself. To break down defences is so hard you have to try something a bit special. Max Evans has that x-factor, he tries things outside the box, and it works for him."

Scotland have been scratching around for a fly-half for over a decade now so it is hardly surprising that Jackson generates plenty of hopeful headlines, although it's too early to judge whether he has what it takes. The youngster is a mass of contradictions. He is a fully paid-up member of Scotland's Aberdonian clique whose father hails from Melrose and whose cousin Craig, a promising centre, sat on the club bench yesterday. He is a confidence player who is beset by nerves and a Scotland squad member but second choice fly-half at his Premiership club, Ayr. On the one hand it's refreshing to see Andy Robinson cast off any accusations of being conservative and pick a raft of young players in the national squad, with Jackson chief amongst them. One the other hand it's obvious that only a crisis would have persuaded even the most out-of-the-box, blue-sky thinker to even consider a player who has so little rugby in the bank.

Robinson won't know much more than anyone else about Jackson's potential, which is exactly why he is getting the youngster involved now, 20 months ahead of the World Cup. If he's the real deal then Jackson needs to be integrated quickly; if he's just another pretender then it's as well that Robinson finds out now rather than in New Zealand at next year's Rugby World Cup.