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Alloa's Kevin Bryce, the Stirling County flanker who only played a handful of games this season after recovering from knee surgery, has won the Macphail Scholarship, earning him a summer season of rugby in New Zealand.
Eighteen year old Bryce, a member of the Scotland under-19 squad at the recent World Championships in Belfast, was selected for the award by the National Academy coaches.
He follows in the footsteps of John Barclay, scholarship winner in 2005, who has since earned a professional contract with Glasgow Warriors and 2006 winner Graham Hogg, who is part of the Scotland sevens squad.
This is a great opportunity for me, said Bryce, who heads to Auckland this month. I've just come back from injury and have only played three games this season. I've never been to New Zealand before but I'm really looking forward to it and I hope to come back to Scotland and make the most of my game.
Damaged cartilage and knee surgery last autumn effectively cancelled Bryce's season. But his selection to the
Caledonia Rugby Academy and Central Scotland Institute of Sport quickened the recovery process. The Academy provides technical and tactical expertise, the Central Institute helped Bryce back to full conditioning by providing top-quality training facilities locally, access to sports science, a fully integrated strength and conditioning programme, sports medicine and physio support.
Kevin has had a lot of Strength & Conditioning, medical and physio support from the Central Institute to help move him on and get him playing, said Colin Robertson, National Academy Coach for Caledonia.
He's only played a few games this year so New Zealand is very much his rugby season this year and will give him important game time.
This is a huge opportunity for Kevin to get a feel for what it takes and learn a lot about the position he plays in. The scholarship is a very well organised venture. He will have his own coach who will look after everything from Strength & Conditioning training to psychology, and he will provide regular feedback to us including a DVD every two weeks for us to analyse and see how he's making progress.
They're rugby mad in New Zealand. It will be really intense for him, the culture of rugby will really rub off on him and being there for three months, training and playing in Auckland with top players, could change his perceptions of where he can go and how he can develop his career.
He follows in the footsteps of John Barclay, scholarship winner in 2005, who has since earned a professional contract with Glasgow Warriors and 2006 winner Graham Hogg, who is part of the Scotland sevens squad.
This is a great opportunity for me, said Bryce, who heads to Auckland this month. I've just come back from injury and have only played three games this season. I've never been to New Zealand before but I'm really looking forward to it and I hope to come back to Scotland and make the most of my game.
Damaged cartilage and knee surgery last autumn effectively cancelled Bryce's season. But his selection to the
Caledonia Rugby Academy and Central Scotland Institute of Sport quickened the recovery process. The Academy provides technical and tactical expertise, the Central Institute helped Bryce back to full conditioning by providing top-quality training facilities locally, access to sports science, a fully integrated strength and conditioning programme, sports medicine and physio support.
Kevin has had a lot of Strength & Conditioning, medical and physio support from the Central Institute to help move him on and get him playing, said Colin Robertson, National Academy Coach for Caledonia.
He's only played a few games this year so New Zealand is very much his rugby season this year and will give him important game time.
This is a huge opportunity for Kevin to get a feel for what it takes and learn a lot about the position he plays in. The scholarship is a very well organised venture. He will have his own coach who will look after everything from Strength & Conditioning training to psychology, and he will provide regular feedback to us including a DVD every two weeks for us to analyse and see how he's making progress.
They're rugby mad in New Zealand. It will be really intense for him, the culture of rugby will really rub off on him and being there for three months, training and playing in Auckland with top players, could change his perceptions of where he can go and how he can develop his career.
