2025–26 Scottish Rugby Academy season

Scottish Rugby Academy
2024 / 2025

The Scottish Rugby Academy provides Scotland's up-and-coming rugby union players a dedicated, focused routeway for development into the professional game. Entry is restricted to Scottish qualified students and both male and female entrants are accepted into four regional academies. The 2025–26 season sees the eleventh year of the academy.

Season overview

This was the eleventh year of the Scottish Rugby Academy. With the closure of the Super 6 league, the academy numbers for both Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh Rugby have been increased to help mitigate the young players development.

Regional Academies

The Scottish Rugby Academy runs four regional academies in Scotland:- Glasgow and the West, Borders and East Lothian, Edinburgh and Caledonia. These roughly correspond to the traditional districts of Glasgow District, South, Edinburgh District and North and Midlands.[1]

Stages

Players are selected in three stages:-

Supported stages

  • Stage 1 – Regionally selected and regionally supported players
  • Stage 2 – Nationally selected and regionally supported players

Contracted stage

  • Stage 3 – Nationally selected and regionally supported players assigned to a professional team.

Academy Players

Stage 3 players

Stage 3 players are assigned to a professional team. Nominally, for the men, Glasgow Warriors receive the Stage 3 players of Glasgow and the West and Caledonia regions, while Edinburgh Rugby receive the Stage 3 players of the Edinburgh and Borders and East Lothian regions. The women are integrated into the Scotland women's national rugby sevens team and the Scotland women's national rugby union team.

The Stage 3 players were assigned directly to Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh Rugby.[2][3]

Glasgow Warriors

Note: Flags indicate national union under World Rugby eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-World Rugby nationality.

Player Position Union
Oliver McKenna Prop Scotland
Jackson Rennie Prop Scotland
Jake Shearer Prop Scotland
Joe Roberts Hooker Scotland
Seb Stephen Hooker Scotland
Ryan Burke Lock Scotland
Dan Halkon Lock Scotland
Dylan Cockburn Flanker Scotland
Macenzzie Duncan Flanker Scotland
Archie McMichael Flanker Scotland
Jonny Morris Flanker Scotland
Rory Purvis Flanker Scotland
Player Position Union
Brent Jackson Scrum-half Scotland
Jack Oliver Scrum-half Scotland
Matthew Urwin Fly-half Scotland
Alex Brydon Centre Scotland
Kerr Johnston Centre Scotland
Ben Salmon Centre Scotland
Johnny Ventisei Centre Scotland
Kerr Yule Centre Scotland
Cameron Van Wyk Wing Scotland
Harry Provan Wing Scotland
Fergus Watson Fullback Scotland

Edinburgh

Note: Flags indicate national union under World Rugby eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-World Rugby nationality.

Player Position Union
Jamie Stuart Prop Scotland
Ben White Prop Scotland
Jerry Blyth-Lafferty Hooker Scotland
Jack Utterson Hooker Scotland
Sam Byrd Lock Scotland
Euan McVie Lock Scotland
Mak Rutherford Lock Scotland
Christian Lindsay Flanker Scotland
Ollie Duncan Number 8 Scotland
Player Position Union
Hamish McArthur Scrum-half Scotland
Hector Patterson Scrum-half Scotland
Isaac Coates Fly-half Scotland
Henry Widdowson Fly-half Scotland
Henry Kesterton Centre Scotland
Sam Leweni Centre Scotland
Findlay Thomson Centre Scotland
Ross Wolfenden Centre Scotland
Finlay Doyle Wing Scotland
Ross McKnight Wing Scotland
Nairn Moncrieff Wing Scotland
Lewis Wells Wing Scotland
Rory McHaffie Fullback Scotland

Graduates of this year

Players who have signed professional contracts with clubs:

References

  1. ^ "BT Sport Scottish Rugby Academy - Scottish Rugby Union". Archived from the original on 2016-10-28. Retrieved 2019-11-17.
  2. ^ https://edinburghrugby.org/news-and-features/2025-26-academy-intake-confirmed/
  3. ^ https://glasgowwarriors.org/news-and-features/glasgow-warriors-confirm-2025-26-academy-intake/
  4. ^ https://www.glasgowwarriors.com/articles/news/013079.php