Now updated with pro draft: Borders rugby clubs allocated 12 academy players in 2026 Arnold Clark Premiership draft
This Arnold Clark Premiership rugby season’s academy draft has now been confirmed, with a dozen players assigned to the Borders’ three top-flight clubs.
Melrose, Hawick and Kelso have been allocated four academy players each, the same as the capital’s Edinburgh Academical, Currie Chieftains, Watsonians and Heriot’s but one fewer than defending champions Ayr, Glasgow Hawks and Glasgow Hutchesons’ Aloysians.
Dylan Cockburn is the only Glasgow Warriors player earmarked for the Borders, with their United Rugby Championship rivals Edinburgh supplying the other 11.
Flanker or lock Cockburn, 21, in Warriors’ academy since last July, has been assigned to former club Melrose, along with another ex-Greenyards player, prop Ben White, and his Edinburgh teammates Finlay Doyle and Christian Lindsay.
Former Peebles and Southern Knights back Ross Wolfenden is the only Borders-produced player allocated to Hawick and the 20-year-old, a recent Scotland under-20s captain, is accompanied by Edinburgh teammates Findlay Thomson, Matthew Fick and Sam Byrd.
Kelso’s cohort, on the other hand, is all home-produced except Fife-born prop Jamie Stewart.
The 20-year-old is joined in Poynder Park’s allocation by their own Jack Utterson, Gala’s Nairn Moncrieff and Peebles’ Rory McHaffie.
The 11 Edinburgh players assigned to the Borders are among 23 in this year’s draft nationwide and Cockburn is one of 20 Warriors listed as being potentially available from Saturday, September 19, onwards.
Cockburn, White, 21, and winger Doyle, 22, also featured in Melrose’s academy draft last season, along with full-back McHaffie, 19.
Centre Thomson, 22, and lock Byrd, 19, are, likewise, returnees from Mansfield Park’s 2025 draft, having been accompanied by club old boy Hector Patterson and Jerry Blyth-Lafferty a year ago.
The same goes for hooker Utterson and winger Moncrieff, both 19, at Kelso, returning after being named in 2025’s allocation alongside Jack Brown and Isaac Coates.
Announcing this term’s allocation, a Scottish Rugby spokesperson said: “43 Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors senior academy players have been assigned to premiership clubs for the upcoming season.
“That arrangement will allow the players’ professional clubs to release them for additional game-time with their designated premiership sides, as well as providing opportunities to feature during periods of injury rehabilitation.
“Their availability will be determined by individual development plans agreed with their professional clubs.
“The draft includes 20 Glasgow Warriors academy players and 23 from Edinburgh. Warriors players have largely been allocated to clubs in the west of Scotland while Edinburgh players have predominantly been assigned to clubs across Edinburgh and the Borders.
“That regional approach is designed to strengthen links between academy players and premiership clubs within their local catchment areas while providing the players with valuable competitive experience alongside their professional development.”
That academy draft was followed by a whole-squad allocation of senior professionals, with seven each being earmarked for the Borders’ three clubs, though most of them are as good as certain never to set foot on a premiership pitch.
Rob Carmichael, Rhys Litterick, Liam McConnell, Harry Patterson, Ben Vellacott, Jerry Blyth-Lafferty and James Grayson are allotted to Kelso; Ross Thompson, Harri Morris, Tom Dodd, Freddy Douglas, Marshall Sykes, Alec Hepburn and Kienan Higgins to Melrose; and Pierre Schoeman, Charlie McCaig, Darcy Graham, D’Arcy Rae, Glen Young, Ollie Blyth-Lafferty and Hector Patterson to Hawick.
Three of those 21 Edinburgh pros have been assigned to their clubs of origin – Graham and Patterson at Mansfield Park, accompanied by Jedburgh’s Young, and Morris at the Greenyards.
Gala’s Kerr Johnston has been allocated to Ayr, Hawick’s Rory Sutherland and Jack Oliver to Glasgow Hutchesons’ Aloysians and Peebles’ Patrick Harrison to Edinburgh’s Currie Chieftains.
The now-relegated Souters were the Borderers to make most use of their draft allocation last season, bringing in reinforcements 13 times, the second-highest number nationwide after the 15 fielded by Edinburgh’s Heriot’s, with Melrose doing so 11 times, Kelso nine and Hawick eight, the Greens’ tally being the joint-lowest nationally with Currie.