Talented Heriot's hooker Finlay Gillies hopes to use award to follow Trust's 2009 selection Niven into professional ranks

The 21-year-old National Academy hooker, who has played for Scotland at under-18, under-19 and under-20 levels and made his debut for the Scotland Club International team last month, hopes to follow in the footsteps of others who have used the scholarship as a stepping stone to the elite end of the game. By way of example, Macphail's immediate scholarship predecessor – Lewis Niven – was yesterday awarded a professional contract.

The scholarship will enable Gillies, who plays his club rugby for Heriot's in Scottish Hydro Premier Division 1, to spend his summer playing club rugby in Auckland, New Zealand.

Gillies, a product of Dunbar Grammar School, who has also played club rugby for Dunbar and Haddington, said: "I'm determined to make the very most of what will be a fantastic opportunity.

"I'm very aware that past recipients of the scholarship have been bright enough to use it as a vehicle not just to improve their skills as a rugby player but to demonstrate that they are ready to step up to the professional game. That has to be my target too."

The scholarship is now in its sixth year. The first winner, John Barclay, has gone on to become a key player at openside flanker for both Glasgow Warriors and Scotland. Other winners have advanced at representative level, most significantly the 2008 scholar, Roddy Grant, who has now played for Scotland Sevens and Scotland A as well as becoming a regular with the Edinburgh professional team, again in the back row.

It was also announced yesterday that Niven, last year's Macphail scholar, is being awarded a two-year professional contract with Edinburgh. Tom Smith, Edinburgh's assistant coach, said: "As part of the National Academy, Lewis has come in and worked with us in live scrummaging. For someone relatively young to come into such a fairly tough environment he has acquitted himself well and is worthy of an opportunity.

"Tight-head prop is very much a key position and it will be interesting to see how he develops. He will be offered all the necessary support alongside his own work ethic and he has an opportunity to step up and make rugby his professional career."

Niven, 21, a product of Trinity Academy and the Edinburgh BATS, said: "I'm very grateful to the Robertson Scholarship Trust for giving me the chance to go to New Zealand last year and that experience coupled with support from my coaches in the National Academy and my club coaches and fellow players at Edinburgh Accies, has enabled me to join Edinburgh."

John Macphail won two caps for Scotland as a hooker against England in 1949 and South Africa in 1951, so it is fitting that Gillies, a fellow front-row player, follows in his wake. In Macphail's business career he was chief executive, then chairman, of the Edrington Group, a private company that is owned by the Robertson Trust.

Macphail died in the summer of 2004 and his family and the trustees were keen to establish a scholarship in his memory.

Duncan Munro, director of the Robertson Scholarship Trust, said: "We are very pleased to provide a further opportunity for a talented, young Scottish player to experience an intensive 12 weeks of rugby with the Auckland University club in New Zealand.

"We heartily congratulate Finlay on his selection as the sixth John Macphail Rugby Scholar. We hope that we can take inspiration from what the previous recipients have gone on to achieve and we look forward to following his progress over the summer."