'I’d like to think I’m ready': 20-year-old aims to follow Fagerson Scotland path

Emerging Edinburgh prop Ollie Blyth-Lafferty admits he would relish the chance to follow in Zander Fagerson’s footsteps and make a full Scotland debut as a 20-year-old this summer, potentially against the country of one of his rugby heroes.

The strapping tighthead only made his senior bow for Edinburgh in late November – as a late replacement off the bench against Ospreys – and signed his first professional deal in December after making a first start against Toulon in the Champions Cup.

But such has been his progress in recent months that he is already under consideration for Scotland’s Nations Championship games in July against Argentina, South Africa and Fiji, even though he is still eligible for one more campaign for Scotland’s Under-20s at the Junior World Championship being staged in Georgia from late June.

If Gregor Townsend opts to include Blyth-Lafferty in his senior squad, in a position where Scotland have struggled to build depth, the 1.92m (6ft 3in), 136kg (21st 6lb) prop could tread the same path as Fagerson, who made his debut against England in the 2016 Six Nations, 18 days after his 20^th birthday.

The Glasgow stalwart, now 30, has gone on to become Scotland’s most capped prop with 81 in his locker, and Blyth-Lafferty could join him on a July trek taking in Tests against the Pumas in Cordoba and the Springboks in Pretoria before returning to face Fiji at Murrayfield.

Fixture

United Rugby Championship

Edinburgh

11:45

15 May 26

Connacht

All Stats and Data

“It would be class, definitely,” he said. “I’d like to think that I’m ready for it, but at the end of the day, that’s up to the coaches and it’s their decision. It’s something I need to take on the chin whether it happens or it doesn’t and just keep working hard, keep my head down.

“Fingers crossed, you never know. I spoke to [Scotland scrum coach] Pieter de Villiers earlier today actually. He was just chatting about my game against the Dragons. He thought it was a good scrum performance overall, then we went through my clips individually.

“He mentioned ‘you are definitely in the mixer with the other guys’. That’s good to hear but [he said] ‘just keep going well, you’ve got one more game this season, you never know’. I don’t want to think about it too much. It would be great, but you just need to wait and see.

“One prop I always looked up to was a tighthead called Ramiro Herrera, who played for Argentina. I always tried to scrum like him, watching the Argentine mindset at the scrum. The Springboks now scrum similarly to how they [the Pumas] would scrum back then. I’d definitely relish it if I got to do that. You put yourself in that position, you work hard and you show off what you can do for the team.  That would be great.”

Edinburgh team-mate Darcy Rae has started four of Scotland’s nine Tests this season and is regarded as the main back-up to Fagerson but has missed his club’s last three games with a calf injury he is battling to shake off in time to be involved in a pre-tour camp in June.

With Northampton’s Elliot Millar-Mills and Leicester’s Will Hurd largely used off the bench by their clubs and Murphy Walker restricted to just six games for Glasgow this season, Blyth-Lafferty appears well placed to forge his way into the senior squad despite his inexperience.

He has started nine of his 14 matches since his debut – more than Rae or Edinburgh’s other senior tighthead Paul Hill this season – and admits he’s been “really surprised” with the speed of his progress, having played 14 games for Scotland’s Under-20s over the past two seasons.

“I didn’t think I’d play nearly as much as I have,” he said. “Credit to [Edinburgh head coach] Sean [Everitt] for giving me the opportunity and putting his faith in me. It’s been great to play as many minutes as I have and the amount of starts I’ve got has been quite remarkable.“It’s been a tough challenge, don’t get me wrong, but it’s been pretty special getting to play this much in my first year. I’m still playing against new teams and away from home in different environments and you’re going to come up against different styles, but overall I feel comfortable in that environment.

“I’ve got guys around me like Schoey [Pierre Schoeman], Boan [Venter], Gilly [Grant Gilchrist]- seasoned professionals and internationals who know how to deal with these kinds of things. It definitely pumps your tyres up.”

That support has been important given Blyth-Lafferty has been learning on the hoof. In two of his starts, against Gloucester and Sharks, he was brought off after 29 and 34 minutes respectively, and at half-time in two more, either as a strategic move or in response to the match situation.

“A lot of games I went into early on, I was thinking ‘What are my work-ons? What do I need to get better at around the pitch?’ and then I’d sometimes forget about what my job is, my bread-and-butter around my set-piece and scrum, my maul defence,” he added.

“Post-game, they wouldn’t hammer me for the things I need to work on, they’d hammer me for things I need to do for the team. ‘These are the reasons you’re getting picked, for what you’re good at’, not for what they want to see one day.

“That would be the biggest learning for me. First things first, you do your job for the team. It comes together once you get that momentum and you get those opportunities by doing your job. That is when you can get on ball a bit more or find yourself in positions for a good tip(-pass) or something.”

Fixture

United Rugby Championship

Edinburgh

11:45

15 May 26

Connacht

All Stats and Data

Everitt has been happy to give Blyth-Lafferty time in the saddle and believes he has all the ingredients to play at a higher level.

“Sometimes you’re going to get it wrong at scrum time as a 19- or 20-year-old, and we all understand that,” he said. “But there’s other areas of his game he has improved. I think his ball-carries on Saturday in Newport were outstanding. That’s an area of growth that pleases me.

“He is exciting. I mean, if he can hold his own against a fully-loaded French team like Toulon here at home, the future certainly does look bright for him, and it might be sooner rather than later.

“That’s up to how the international staff see his development. There’s no tighthead in the world that makes it at the age of 20, so he’s going to have to improve and obviously he’ll grow into his body as well. There’s a lot of physical development he has to do within his game.”