The now 24-year-old will be at stand-off when the capital outfit return to Champions Cup action following a three-season hiatus against Toulon at Hive Stadium this evening (kick-off at 5.30pm). It will be his 21st appearance for the club since his debut back in October 2022, and only his fifth start.
Talented, intelligent, brave and level-headed, Scott gave an indication of his big-match temperament when he slotted a last-minute conversion to secure a 25-25 draw away to Zebre in the third last game of the last URC regular season – a result which teed-up back-to-back wins away to Connacht and at home to Ulster during the subsequent fortnight to ultimately secure a Champions Cup qualification clinching top-eight finish for the club.
“For me as a player, that was a big turning point to be like: ‘You can play at this level now’,” he recalls. “I think for a lot of people including for myself, it gave us all a lot of belief within the season, because we really needed those points.”
It is too early to say whether he’s got what it takes to become the resident conductor-in-chief that the chronically inconsistent capital outfit so desperately need, but it is heartening to see a homegrown talent – who has played in the last three games since returning from a hamstring injury which kept him pout at the start of the season – finally being given the chance to prove himself from the start on perhaps the biggest stage Edinburgh will perform on this season.
“It’s one of those things where you kind of have to bide your time,” shrugs the affable Scott, who played minis, youth and schools rugby for Boroughmuir and Portobello, before spending his last two under-18s seasons at George Watson’s College.
“You obviously get some players like Matt Currie, Ben Muncaster, Paddy Harrison and Jamie Dobie that come through and flourish straight away, but for me it’s been a bit of a waiting game.
“I don’t know particularly why. I don’t know if the coaches are not believing, but I knew that all I could do was just keep training hard and make sure I was ready when the chance came.
“As a stand-off, you’ve got to hit the ground running, don’t you? You can’t come in and be feeling your way into it … and maybe that was what happened for me.
“But I think ever since Sean Everitt has been here [as head coach ahead of the 2023-24 season], he’s had a bit of belief in me as well. At first he supported my progression and stuff like that, which was good, then he gave me my contract extension last season, and then it’s obviously taken until now to get these kinds of starts.
“I’d say in the past that there was definitely question marks over my kicking game,” he replies, when asked what he thinks makes him more ready now than he was previously. “And I think that’s what a lot of coaches kind of worried about with me initially.
“But then, for me, it was just being young. You’re obviously going to graft away at it, work hard at it, and I think it’s kind of worked out now.
“It just come from practice and practice. Literally, just coming in on Wednesdays, kicking with Mossie [Chris Paterson], with Rob Chrystie [Edinburgh’s skills coach] helping out as well, and just getting the repetition of it.”
Can he kick it? Cammy Scott believes he can thanks to lots of hard work. Image: © Craig Watson – www.craigwatson.co.uk
As a player whose first few years of senior rugby was blighted by Covid, you wonder whether a lack of game-time during that crucial developmental period was a factor in this kicking issue?
“So, this is a big thing that I’ve thought about,” he bounces right back. “At under-16s you’re taught attack, and at under-18s there’s an emphasis on team shape and stuff like that, but there’s no actual emphasis on kicking – which, I think, as a fly-half, it’s actually quite detrimental, in a sense.
“Even at school, you aren’t really taught as a 10 how to kick into a game, really. Or kick field possession, which you have to learn by yourself, and then when you come in here you kind of learn it as well.
“I don’t know if there’s something that you could bring in when players are younger, just to teach them a bit more … but maybe that takes the fun away a bit and it should be all about ball in hand.”
Scott – who is in the third year of a Business degree which he has been doing part-time at Napier University since leaving school, and who also runs the RamblinRoast coffee can with his best pal, Ethan McVicker (Lasswade, Boroughmuir, Melrose, Scotland Under-20s, Selkirk, Edinburgh Accies and now back at Lasswade) – is clearly a smart cookie who thinks a bit about the game.
Finding his voice
After missing out on Scotland Under-18s with a foot injury, Scott played two seasons with the under-20s, then had a spell on loan with London Scottish in the English Championship where he played centre rather than stand-off – which he feels was a valuable formative experience.
“That was more of a personal thing,” he explains. “When I was playing under-20s, one of the coaches there at the time just kind of shouted at me, and I think I got ‘in’ myself a wee bit, so I was like: ‘No, I don’t really want to play 10 anymore, I went to play 12’.
“And it was good at London Scottish terms of being out of the environment. You 100 percent learn more. I think the development for me was massive going down to the Champ.
“I don’t want to sound like I am bad-mouthing Super6 [where he’d played for Boroughmuir Bears and Southern Knights], but the Champ was a better league for me to be in at the time as a young boy coming through, against big physical men.
“And then I kind of found that belief again in myself to go back to 10, so, I came back up here and got my debut that same season against Cardiff, played a couple more games, and then obviously last year I played a few more off the bench and stuff like that.
“Coming back to Edinburgh and being a bit louder than I was – because I’m usually quite a quiet guy – and seeing that you can get the respect of the senior players like Grant Gilchrist, I think that kind of turned my head a wee bit, and I actually enjoyed playing fly-half again.
“I feel like now I’m in a good place where I feel confident enough in my game, I’m not second-guessing things.”
Confidence is key
Scott knows that there certainly won’t be any scope for second-guessing this evening, when Edinburgh will look to back up last weekend’s scrappy home win over Ospreys in the URC with a more polished all-round performance against a Toulon side who currently sit third in the French Top 14.
“They’ll be a typical French team, won’t they?” he asks rhetorically. “They’ve got big forwards and their No 9s – with Ben White starting and Baptiste Serin coming off the bench – are the generals who lead them around the park, so we’re going to have to be very smart with that in how we play against them.
“You can’t be just playing in front of them the whole time, because that makes it easier for them. You’ve got to try and move the big boys around, with our nines, 10 and back-three putting the team in the right areas.
“I think you obviously respect these teams, but I think at the same time you’ve got to have a lot of self-belief against them. I think you’ve got to go in fighting. You can’t just sit down with them straight away. You’ve actually got to go and take it to them.”
Edinburgh ready for Champions Cup return as Sean Everitt explains selection calls
