Tom Palmer: I could have played for Scotland

HE'S the one who got away and Tom Palmer is planning to show Scotland what they missed out on.

The England lock forward spent his formative years in Edinburgh and was hopeful of winning a contract with the city's pro side. Such as deal would have allowed him to fulfil the necessary residency criterion to play for Scotland.

However, it wasn't to be, and in an interview in today's Scotland on Sunday Six Nations supplement, Palmer explains the circumstances which saw him wear the red rose rather than the thistle.

Schooled in Edinburgh, Palmer has fond memories of watching Scotland defeat England to win the 1990 Grand Slam at Murrayfield. He went on to play for Boroughmuir and won caps for Scotland at U19 and U21 level but didn't step up to the full national side.

"My mum and dad are both English and I've got no Scottish blood in me at all, so it was a question of qualifying on residency," Palmer explains. "But... we had to be careful. I'd been in New Zealand and then went straight to Leeds, so I didn't have the straight four years in Scotland and basically wasn't qualified, so I had to go with the country of my birth.

"Who knows, if Edinburgh had offered me a contract things might have turned out differently, but they didn't..."