Dunfermline Rugby: Head coach reveals Australian link

Gavin Emerson, head coach of the the senior men's first XV, has revealed that they have linked-up with the Briars Rugby Club with a view to giving players from both sides the opportunity to experience rugby either in Australia or Scotland.

For Saturday's National League Division Four clash with Moray, Aussie Max Clarke was on Dunfermline's bench, and will be with the club for a short period.

"We've got a guy over for a few months from Australia. He came over travelling, so we've formed a partnership with Briars Rugby Club in Sydney," Emerson said.

READ MORE: 'It wasn't well-executed': Coach reflects on rugby club's Moray draw

"Max is the first of hopefully many to come over the next few seasons, the first of our Aussies to come over and experience the lovely Scottish weather!

"He played his first game on Saturday. He came off the bench, did well, and we'll hopefully have a couple of young lads we can maybe send out there for the summer and get some experience playing in Australia.

Gavin Emerson said the partnership came about by chance and through one of Dunfermline's players. (Image: David Wardle.) "It'll give maybe some of our guys leaving the cold for a bit of summer, experience, and then they'll come back to us when we start in the September, with experience of maybe a higher level of rugby.

"It's something you want to offer to our lads when they're young, maybe retain them at the club, because they know they'll have these opportunities."

Emerson said that the partnership came about by chance through one of the club's players, Andrew Storie, explaining: "He's got family in Sydney.

"He's been going for the last couple of years, going out and playing for their under-21s. I was over in Sydney in May, so I met up with Andrew out there, and I just asked, do you think there'll be any lads that fancy coming over for a few months?

"There was a few that showed interest, but Max was the one that stuck at it. Obviously, there's a price to come over, because we can't support that. They have to fund themselves, so the expense is quite high, but Max and his friend came over. Hopefully his friend might take up rugby - we've been trying to get at him!

"That's just how it happened. Then they contacted us, wanting to make it a bit of an official partnership, so we were really keen to do that. It's just by chance, really."

Meanwhile, Dunfermline, whose first XV go to Whitecraigs this Saturday in their final game of 2024, saw one of their players, Ethan Morgan, win the Scottish Rugby Arnold Clark men's try of the month for October.

In addition, at Scottish Rugby Union's recent AGM, Hazel Swankie, with 75 per cent of the vote, was elected as the organisation's vice president.

She will serve two years in the role before becoming Scotland's second female president, following in the footsteps of Dee Bradbury, of Oban Lorne RFC, who held the position between 2018-2020.