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Glasgow Warriors snap up hotshot scrum-half from under the nose of Edinburgh
By Alex Shaw
Merchiston Castle School has long been one of the most productive rugby breeding grounds in Scotland, with Edinburgh having picked up plenty of talented players from the school in the south-west of the city.
The likes of Zach Mercer, Magnus Bradbury and Fraser Brown have all graduated from its ranks in recent years, whilst another emerging talent in Rufus McLean is set to start appearing on people's radars in the coming seasons.
Unfortunately for Richard Cockerill and his side, they have missed out on one of the brightest prospects to come out of the school in years in the form of Jamie Dobie, with the scrum-half signing a two-year professional contract with Glasgow Warriors.
Still just 17 years of age, Dobie has been turning out for the Scotland U18 side the last two seasons and was one of the standouts for the age-grade side at the recent U18 Six Nations Festival, where he also captained the team.
Speaking to glasgowwarriors.org, Dobie said "I’m delighted to be making the step and joining Glasgow Warriors for the next two seasons.
"This is a real opportunity for me to develop and learn from some of the best players in the country and bring my own game on in a new environment.
"It will be a huge test, but one I am massively looking forward to."
His soon-to-be head coach Dave Rennie said "It’s uncommon for a player to be signed straight from school, but Jamie is one of the most exciting young talents in the country and we believe he’s ready to thrive in a professional environment.
"He’s an impressive man and has the potential to become the complete scrum-half.
"He’ll learn a lot from the three nines already at the club and we’re rapt to have him on board."
With both George Horne and Ali Price likely to be involved in the upcoming Rugby World Cup for Scotland, Dobie could find himself playing senior club rugby sooner rather than later under Rennie, with Glasgow's playing resources set to be stretched thin in the opening weeks of the 2019/20 Guinness PRO14 season.
He could also feature in the World Rugby U20 Championship in June, where he would be competing with Karl McGhie, Murray Scott and Roan Frostwick for a spot in Carl Hogg's side.
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Latest Comments
BB can’t pass? Right…
Go to commentsEven the 20/30 cappers did too I reckon.
IDK, I think Jordan has a limited life span in this side unless he can develop more to his game. Like you go on to mention, I think theyres more important things to worry about than the effectiveness of someone's extra strings, or secondary components to their game.
Bash backs are Fosters thing, and to a large part they've made it work. Theyre now one of the best teams in the world.
They boy's trucked it up a bit against Italy in the redzone, and against France, wasn't that effective without the right players probably.
Try and take a look at it this way. Dissapointed Havili and Blackadder were in the side? Havili despite clearly shown that he can't do what the team needs at 12 was kept on for the RWC. Back goes down and he brings in Blackadder who doesn't play. Refuses to drop Christie when he should and look who starts this season. Beauden Barret not playing well enough to keep his 10 jersey but we gotta keep him in the side. Weve only got one 8, we stuff developing another I'll just play Ardie every game.
This years team wasn't burdened overly with injuries but they were in every position Razor might have wanted to try and development, severely limiting options. I'm not defending Razor as there was also plenty of other opportunity to make up for it and he was a little gunshy, but I'm also not going to overly criticise him because he chose cohesion over a black slate.
I think more and more people are on board with it being time to try alternatives, but then again, how would they have reacted to a loss against Italy? 😉
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