The draft has taken place to align Scotland’s professional players with Premier 1 clubs for the forthcoming RBS league campaign.
All 12 Premier 1 clubs participated in the draft with the 72 professional players from Edinburgh Rugby and Glasgow Warriors allocated amongst them.  The innovation in this year’s draft saw the clubs bracket themselves to one pro-team on grounds of geography. Thus clubs from Glasgow and Caledonia were aligned to Glasgow Warriors and clubs from Edinburgh and the Borders were aligned to Edinburgh.


One further change was that P1 clubs agreed that all first year professionals are allocated to the P1 club from which they had signed.
Gala, the club promoted as runners-up from Premier 2, had first pick of Edinburgh players; while Aberdeen Grammar Rugby, promoted as third placed from Premier 2, had first pick of Glasgow Warriors players.
Winger Mark Robertson, who has agreed a full-time Scotland 7s contract, was part of the draft.
Peter Wright, Premier 1 representative on the Scottish Rugby Council, said the draft was instrumental in seeking to cement closer links between the professional clubs and Premier 1.
He declared: “What we are looking for are closer links between pro-clubs and Premier 1 clubs and there is an onus on all of us to work together to bring that to fruition.
“We are trying to get Premier 1 to a level where pro-players and pro-coaches feel not only positive from the point of view of the standard of rugby but also because there is a positive all-round experience in being involved and associated with that club.”
Wright acknowledged that because of their pro-team and representative commitments, not all of the players in the draft will play for the Premier 1 clubs, but as part of the overall drive to raise standards he believed it is important for P1 clubs to “embrace the pro-players” and have them involved in clubs for mutual benefit.
Pro-player draft:
Gala:  Jack Gilding, Roddy Grant, Steven Turnbull, Nick De Luca and Chris Paterson
Edinburgh Accies: Lewis Niven, Lee Jones, Andrew Kelly, Stuart McInally and Mike Blair
Hawick: Andrew Turnbull, Sean Cox, John Houston, Geoff Cross and Greig Laidlaw
Boroughmuir: Mark Robertson, Netani Talei, Esteban Lozada, Tim Visser and Phil Godman
Heriot’s: Struan Dewar, Alan MacDonald, Jim Thompson, Ross Rennie and Kyle Traynor
Currie: Tom Brown, Steve Lawrie, Chris Leck, David Denton and Ben Cairns
Melrose: Scott Wight, Simon Webster, James King, Allan Jacobsen and Ross Ford
Aberdeen Grammar Rugby: Alex Dunbar, James Eddie, Moray Low, Ruaridh Jackson, Chris Cusiter, Jon Welsh, Johnnie Beattie, DTH Van der Merwe
Stirling County: Peter Horne, Peter Murchie, Callum Forrester, Tom Ryder, Robert Harley, Al Kellock, Colin Gregor and Dougie Hall
Dundee HSFP: James Fleming, Chris Fusaro, Rory Pitman, Tommy Seymour, Troy Nathan, Graeme Morrison and Fergus Thomson
Glasgow Hawks: Colin Shaw, Dave McCall, Rob Dewey, Henry Pyrgos, Duncan Weir, Richie Gray and John Barclay
Ayr: Gordon Reid, Ed Kalman, Ryan Wilson, Ryan Grant, Mike Cusack, Pat MacArthur and Federico Aramburu

This article was originally posted on 8-Aug-2011, 17:16 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 8-Aug-2011, 18:32.