Denholm’s Hector Patterson named in Scottish academies squad to play Ulster under-23s

The scrum-half, a hat-trick hero for former club Hawick on draft duty on Saturday as they beat Marr 51-13 at home at Mansfield Park in the Arnold Clark Premiership, is the only Borderer in head coach Kenny Murray’s squad, selected mostly from United Rugby Championship side Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh’s academies.

The 19-year-old ex-Southern Knight is one of seven Edinburgh players in Murray’s starting XV, to be captained by Warriors outside-centre Johnny Ventisei.

The others are Jack Brown at full-back, Ollie Blyth-Lafferty at tighthead prop, Euan McVie at lock, Liam McConnell and Freddy Douglas as flankers and Tom Currie at No 8.

The seven other Glasgow academy players starting alongside Ventisei are Fergus Watson, Kerr Yule, Amena Caqusau, Matthew Urwin, Tom Banatvala, Joe Roberts and Dan Halkon.

Gala’s Nairn Moncrieff, an Edinburgh trainee allocated to Kelso as part of this season’s pro and academy drafts, is one of 13 replacements named.

Joining him on the bench are Jerry Blyth-Lafferty, Michael Jones, Cairn Ramsay, Olujare Oguntibeju, OIlie Duncan, Conor McAlpine, Jack Hocking, Fin Thomson, Jake Shearer, Macenzzie Duncan, Mark Fyffe and Sam Leweni.

Murray, 51, said: “This is a really good opportunity for our young guys to play a really high level game of rugby.

“What we’ve tried to do is get a blend of players who are under 20 this season as well as those in the under-23 bracket.

“We want to get that real physical challenge at this point in the season against a good team and the kind of pace and intensity that this kind of game brings.

“This will be a first real hit-out of the season for a lot of these players, so we’re looking forward to seeing them get this opportunity to play at this level.”

Kick-off on Friday is at 4pm.

Free tickets are available via https://scottishrugby.org/combined-academies-to-face-ulster-under-23s/