Rapid rise continues for Ruaridh
Fresh from a strong summer, academy scrum half Ruaridh Dawson’s impressive career trajectory continued in an upward curve last weekend as he made his Aviva Premiership debut.
Coming off the bench for the final six minutes, Dawson became the second youngest player to play for the club in the league at 18 years and 100 days.
Mathew Tait remains the youngest, beating Dawson by 14 days, but for a young man who has already featured for the club in the Singha Premiership Rugby 7s series, the Kings of the North Cup and the match against Georgia, it is another impressive milestone already reached.
For a player fresh into the senior academy this season, the prospect of playing in front of 20,000 people could easily have been an intimidating prospect, however Dawson rose to the occasion.
“Initially I was quite nervous, it’s a big game against a big team and Northampton are pretty good but through the week my nerves settled with people talking to me and telling me to do what I could do.”
With a four hour bus ride down country and an overnight stay, the young number nine had plenty of time to think about his potential involvement and get any pre match jitters under control.
“There was a bit of a realisation on the team bus, it was quite a long drive so there was time to settle in a bit, and the overnight stay allowed me to calm down and get comfortable.”
“On Saturday, the anticipation was quite high. It’s [Stadium:MK] is the biggest ground I’ve played at so there were some nerves that crept back in, but as the game went on, I calmed back down, watched Ruki a bit to see what I had to do when I came on to do the job.”
Trying gamely in his six minutes on the field, Dawson felt that things went ok and that the experience gave him plenty to take forward into the rest of the season.
“I thought it was an alright game. A couple of passes went over the height I’d want them too. They were a bit over Tom’s [Catterick] head and I’d want them to be more chest height.”
“I also got nailed on one of my snipes around the breakdown which was a good welcome to the Premiership. It’s part of the game though and was a good shock to the system.”
“Now, I’m really looking forward to what happens next, be that being kept in the squad or going back to Blaydon.”
With so many varied experiences enjoyed to date, the pace of the season has yet to allow Dawson time to reflect on what has happened so far, although another member of the household has been able to enjoy his progress.
“My Dad has had most of the enjoyment of it! He’s been wandering around the house smiling where it hasn’t really sunk in for me yet. The day to day side of being a player is keeping me focused and not distracted by all the amazing experiences I’ve had so far.”
