Telfer hails Hutton's 'brilliance' in victory over Cardiff

FORMER Scotland and Lions coach Jim Telfer has become the latest rugby luminary to hail Edinburgh stand off Rory Hutton's arrival on the pro scene.

Hutton, 22, debuted in a 21-12 win over Cardiff last weekend and made an instant impact on Telfer, who today singled him out as a man apart. "Two pieces of individual brilliance ... eventually led to a fairly-comfortable victory. Rory Hutton was the player involved in each case with two incisive breaks which led to tries, and that was the difference.

"He was the only player in either side capable of doing something different." Strong praise in his weekly STV rugby blog from Telfer, who goes on to bemoan limited opportunities to develop talent like Hutton after the Borders professional team were shut down.

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"Why haven't (readers) heard of him before? Because we have only two pro teams.

"Maybe a solution to the problem of keeping quality young players in the "development loop" is to reduce the size of club leagues and play an amateur district championship in preparation for the club internationals. Young players would then feel that they were still in the shop window."

Telfer also praised Ross Rennie and Jim Hamilton's latest efforts.