The Scotland teenager who is 'world class already' and a superstar in the making
He is only 19 and has yet to play a first-class game for Edinburgh but Freddy Douglas has already shown enough to convince Scotland assistant coach John Dalziel that he is a superstar in the making.
The teenager was a shock inclusion in the national squad for the Autumn Nations Series and is expected to be given an outing in dark blue over the next two weekends.
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Hide AdScotland play Portugal at Murrayfield on Saturday then round off their campaign the following weekend with an A international against Chile at Hive Stadium on November 23 and a full Test against Australia at Murrayfield the following day.
Douglas has been a stand-out performer for the Scotland Under-20 team and Dalziel has described him as “already world class” after witnessing him first hand in training. The flanker has not been afraid to mix it with some of the more established campaigners in the squad and has already to stood up to Pierre Schoeman and Matt Fagerson. In fact, Douglas was so physical in training that Dalziel joked that he must have got his days mixed up, confusing the lighter session on Tuesday with a full contact session.


Asked if Douglas would be involved against Portugal, Dalziel said: “We’ll definitely see him over the next two weekends, put it that way, and he’s trained brilliantly. We’ve been lucky that as national coaches we’ve been doing a bit of work with the national academy before we came in [to camp]. I mean, the guy is going to be a superstar, he’s just really impressed us hugely.
“We’d seen him with the 20s. Today even, he was probably the most physical guy [in training]. I think he got the day wrong, I think Matt Fagerson will know all about him today. He’s been flying into everything, he’s been excellent, and it’s not just what we see from him from a tackle and contest point of view, over the ball, he’s got a fantastic skill set. I even saw him jumping in the lineout. He’s a great kid and we’ll see him definitely over the next two weeks.”
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An out-and-out openside, Douglas was a stand-out during last season’s Under-20 Six Nations then, in the summer, helped Scotland win the World Rugby U20 Trophy and promotion back to the top-tier at under-20 level. A product of Stewart’s Melville College, he joined Edinburgh Rugby’s pro academy after leaving school ahead of the 2023-24 season. He has played for the capital side’s second-string A side but has yet to play a competitive match for the first team. Despite his lack of top level experience, he has not been overawed by working with the Scotland squad.
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“Not at all, no,” confirmed Dalziel. “And we’d seen that when the 20s trained with us through the Six Nations. He took a fight with Schoeman straight away, so he picks his enemies well! He’s world class already, and I think this experience for him is going to do him no end of good, and when he gets back to his club, he’ll kick on even further as well.”
Dalziel has promised that Scotland will “freshen up” their squad for Saturday’s match against Portugal following the bruising encounter with South Africa last weekend. The Springboks were 32-15 victors at Murrayfield on Sunday to extend their winning run against the Scots to nine games in a row.
The hosts matched the world champions for long spells but couldn’t find a way through to the tryline in an engrossing battle. Portugal, who are ranked 15th in the world, are likely to pose an altogether different test and Scotland are expected to rest several senior players while giving some of their up-and-coming talent an opportunity.
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Dalziel has warned against complacency, citing Portugal’s performances at last year’s World Cup when they produced one of the shocks of the tournament in beating Fiji and also drew with Georgia and were very competitive against Wales and Australia.
“There are no easy games in international rugby at all,” said the coach. “Portugal are going to come with a free swing, there’s no pressure on them and they’re going to love the occasion. It’s going to be a great week for them, playing at Murrayfield in front of 55,000, they’re going to raise their game even further. We can’t look any further back than the World Cup, they were so competitive, they’ll score tries from anywhere, so I don’t think there’ll be any complacency from us at all.”
Portugal, who lost 21-17 at home to the USA at the weekend, have changed coaches twice since the World Cup, with former New Zealand fly-half Simon Mannix now the man in charge. He replaced Sebastien Bertrank, who lasted just a month in the role having succeeded Patrice Lagisquet, the Frenchman who oversaw the World Cup heroics.
Mannix, who played one Test for the All Blacks, has had coaching spells with Pau, Racing 92 and Biarritz and Dalziel has detected a French influence to Portugal.
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Hide Ad“They’ve changed coaches, so they’re in a transitional stage since the World Cup where they probably built up to a peak and did well. They’ve brought in a couple of French coaches as well and they’ve got big characteristics of French teams. They’re competitive teams in all areas, there are no areas that we see any weakness. They will come and they will throw the ball about, as they showed against USA at the weekend. I know they were beaten, but it’s a game on another day, they could have won easily, so they’re a handful and we know that, so we’ll respect them fully, and hopefully no complacency.”
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