Boroughmuir brothers part of Scottish Rugby Academy intake for new season as Edinburgh and Glasgow split revealed

Boroughmuir brothers Jerry and Ollie Blyth-Lafferty have been named in the group of 30 young players contracted to the FOSROC Scottish Rugby Academy for next season.

The new intake will be split evenly between Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors and will train alongside the clubs’ senior players. Jerry, 19, a hooker, and younger brother Ollie, a tighthead prop, came through the ranks at Meggetland. The older Blyth-Lafferty has already had to overcome considerable adversity having spent five months in a spinal brace after a double fracture in his lower spine.

The brothers are among 15 players who will be aligned to Edinburgh. Four of the 15 are retained from last season: Robbie Deans (loosehead prop), Harri Morris (hooker), Liam McConnell (back-row) and Finn Douglas (winger). The other new faces include flanker Tom Currie - younger brother of first-team centre Matt - and three Scotland Under-18 forwards, Euan McVie (lock), Freddie Douglas (flanker) and Ollie Duncan (No 8). In the backs, Scotland U20s scrum-half Finlay Burgess joins from Glasgow Warriors, and Hector Paterson – also a scrum-half – arrives after featuring for Premiership winners Hawick. Stand-off Isaac Coates and centre Jack Hocking join up having both recently impressed at the U18 Six Nations Festival in Dublin. Full-back Jack Brown also links up, fresh from scoring his first try for Watsonians in the Super Series Sprint.

Glasgow Warriors will introduce 10 new academy players and they will join the retained Tom Banatavala (loosehead), Callum Norrie (tighthead), Harris McLeod (lock), Ben Salmon (centre) and Logan Jarvie (winger). Among the new faces are a trio from GHA: winger Amena Caqusau, centre Johnny Ventisei and back-rower Jonny Morris. Two more wingers, Biggar’s Fergus Watson and Kerr Johnston, who has represented Boroughmuir Bears, are also part of the intake along with West of Scotland fly-half Matthew Urwin and Glasgow Hawks centre Kerr Yule. Two further Glasgow Hawks – Ruaraidh Hart and Ryan Burke – are amongst the new recruits in the pack. Loosehead prop and Macphail Scholar Callum Smyth completes the new intake after impressing for Selkirk.

Jerry Blyth-Lafferty in action for Scotland Under-20s. (Photo by Ross MacDonald / SNS Group)

The new academy intake will play in the FOSROC Super Series which will run from the end of July until mid-November and will include a Futures XV. The academy players will be eligible for the new team which will be coached by Scott Lawson, the former Scotland hooker. Its aim is to better prepare players for the national Under-20 side which has struggled in recent seasons and has dropped out of the elite-level World Rugby U20 Championship. Instead, Scotland will play in the second-tier World Rugby U20 Trophy in Kenya next month.

Academy intake

Edinburgh: Robbie Deans (Watsonians), Harri Morris (Southern Knights), Jerry Blyth-Lafferty (Boroughmuir Bears), Ollie Blyth-Lafferty (Boroughmuir RFC), Euan McVie (Heriot’s Rugby), Tom Currie (Merchiston Castle), Liam McConnell (Boroughmuir Bears), Freddie Douglas (Stewart’s Melville College), Ollie Duncan (Edinburgh Academicals), Finlay Burgess (Stirling Wolves), Hector Patterson (Hawick), Isaac Coates (Merchiston Castle), Jack Hocking (Ipswich Grammar), Finn Douglas (Southern Knights), Jack Brown (Watsonians).

Glasgow Warriors: Tom Banatvala (Watsonians), Callum Norrie (Stirling Wolves), Callum Smyth (Selkirk), Ryan Burke (Glasgow Hawks), Harris McLeod (Stirling Wolves), Ruaraidh Hart (Stirling Wolves), Jonny Morris (Watsonians), Matthew Urwin (West of Scotland), Ben Salmon (Stirling Wolves), Johnny Ventisei (GHA), Kerr Yule (Ayrshire Bulls), Amena Caqusau (GHA), Logan Jarvie (Stirling Wolves), Kerr Johnston (Boroughmuir Bears), Fergus Watson (Biggar).