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'It could be a 10-year international career': Scotland celebrate capture of ex-England age-grade player Redpath

By Liam Heagney
(Photo by Amilcar Orfali/Getty Images)

Scotland boss Gregor Townsend has expressed his delight that ex-England age-grade midfielder Cameron Redpath, the 21-year-old son of former Scottish scrum-half Bryan, has declared his Test rugby allegiance to the land of his father. 

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Born in Narbonne during his 49-year-old father’s stint playing in France in the late 1990s, Redpath Jnr has come into his own since his move in England from Sale, another of his dad’s old clubs, to Bath where he has thrived in recent months. 

Redpath, who appeared for England U20s as recently as the 2019 World Cup in Argentina and then trained with Eddie Jones’ Six Nations squad last spring, has made 15 appearances since his switch from the Sharks but it has only been in recent weeks that he made up his mind about who to try and play for at Test level. 

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Scotland made an approach to try and include him for last year’s Autumn Nations Cup but Redpath turned them down, pleading for more time before he had his mind made up. 

Now that decision has been made and Townsend was thrilled to welcome him into the 35-strong Scottish squad that will begin its Six Nations campaign away to defending champions England on February 6.

“I have been trying to sell Scotland to him for the last couple of years but he came to a decision on his own,” explained Townsend when asked at his squad announcement media briefing about how Redpath came to the decision to turn his back on England. “His dad played and captained Scotland. I played alongside his dad but that has not been a factor.

“It’s been what he feels is right for him now and for the next how many years. It could be a ten-year international career he has got ahead of him if it goes well and he continues to improve. 

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“We are delighted that he has committed to us. It’s an unusual situation that his family is all Scottish, Dad played for Scotland but Cam has been brought up in England and has played English age-grade rugby. It would have a tough decision. I’m sure it has been weeks if not months thinking about it but we can’t wait to work with him next week. 

“We had spoken to him for a while and we did offer him the opportunity to come on board with us in the autumn. He didn’t feel it was the right time to commit to either country but he is now in a position where he has had made that decision and we’re delighted. 

“He is already an excellent player. We have high hopes for what he can do in our squad and at that next level of playing international rugby.

“We see him very much as part of our Six Nations campaign. He has played really well for Bath this year and has had regular game time which has been a key factor in his development. He probably wasn’t getting that many games, partly because of an injury, some years ago at Sale but he has regularly featured for Bath and played really well.”

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Jon 10 hours ago
The case for keeping the Melbourne Rebels in Super Rugby Pacific

I have heard it asked if RA is essentially one of the part owners and I suppose therefor should be on the other side of these two parties. If they purchased the rebels and guaranteed them, and are responsible enough they incur Rebels penalties, where is this line drawn? Seems rough to have to pay a penalty for something were your involvement sees you on the side of the conned party, the creditors. If the Rebels directors themselves have given the club their money, 6mil worth right, why aren’t they also listed as sitting with RA and the Tax office? And the legal threat was either way, new Rebels or defunct, I can’t see how RA assume the threat was less likely enough to warrant comment about it in this article. Surely RA ignore that and only worry about whether they can defend it or not, which they have reported as being comfortable with. So in effect wouldn’t it be more accurate to say there is no further legal threat (or worry) in denying the deal. Unless the directors have reneged on that. > Returns of a Japanese team or even Argentinean side, the Jaguares, were said to be on the cards, as were the ideas of standing up brand new teams in Hawaii or even Los Angeles – crazy ideas that seemingly forgot the time zone issues often cited as a turn-off for viewers when the competition contained teams from South Africa. Those timezones are great for SR and are what will probably be needed to unlock its future (cant see it remaining without _atleast _help from Aus), day games here are night games on the West Coast of america, were potential viewers triple, win win. With one of the best and easiest ways to unlock that being to play games or a host a team there. Less good the further across Aus you get though. Jaguares wouldn’t be the same Jaguares, but I still would think it’s better having them than keeping the Rebels. The other options aren’t really realistic 25’ options, no. From reading this authors last article I think if the new board can get the investment they seem to be confident in, you keeping them simply for the amount of money they’ll be investing in the game. Then ditch them later if they’re not good enough without such a high budget. Use them to get Jaguares reintergration stronger, with more key players on board, and have success drive success.

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