Scott not fazed by tough exams

THE element of surprise around Edinburgh’s Heineken Cup run is perhaps most obvious in the incredible demands heaping upon the shoulders of their young centre Matt Scott.

Pushing on from club rugby to the professional game and winning a first Scotland cap – in the same Aviva Stadium to which he returns for Saturday’s Heineken Cup semi-final – is generally viewed as a tough climb even without the extra burden of completing a law degree with final-year dissertations and exams in the same six months.

But the promising 21-year-old did not see his or Edinburgh’s rapid ascent coming. With a final dissertation completed days after facing Toulouse, Scott is now training for Saturday’s meeting with Ulster while filling in gaps from missed seminars and cramming for final exams that fall in the week leading up to the Heineken Cup final.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it – if we come to it,” he said, when asked if he had sought dispensation should Edinburgh make it that far.

“It’s crazy and I’ve not had chance to take stock of it all yet, but I’m looking forward to going back there [to Dublin]. It has special memories for me from my first cap, but also memories of being beaten heavily by Ireland, so the guys who were over there will be looking to right that wrong.

“It certainly has been a big change from Currie, and this time last year I wouldn’t have dreamed I’d be playing in a game like this. I have had to balance a lot and I think that [first cap] was when my lecturers realised that I was playing rugby at a decent level, and wasn’t just trying to con them into missing lots of classes for a muck-about.

“Rugby can be a long prosperous career, or very short, and that’s kept my eye on the ball in terms of wanting to finish my degree, but the rugby is important too. And I’m confident. If we can beat Toulouse we can beat anyone.”