Scotland scrum guru contacts Edinburgh Rugby prop as summer options open up

Pieter de Villiers, the Scotland scrum coach, has already been in touch. The set-piece guru has gone over some clips of Blyth-Lafferty’s game and hinted that he may not be far away from the senior squad.

Unsurprisingly, the player himself would love to be involved in the Nations Championship, and is positively salivating at the prospect of.taking on the big beasts of Argentina and South Africa. In the words of Edinburgh forwards coach Stevie Lawrie, Blyth-Lafferty is a “proper rugby pig” who eats, breathes and sleeps scrummaging.

“One prop I always looked up to was a tighthead called Ramiro Herrera, who played for Argentina,” said Blyth-Lafferty. “I always tried to scrum like him, watching the Argentine mindset at the scrum. And the Springboks now scrum similarly to how they would scrum back then. I’d definitely relish it if I got to do that. You put yourself in that position, you work hard and you show off what you can do for the team. That would be great.”

Trusted in the big games

Not that he is getting ahead of himself. Blyth-Lafferty comes across as likeable and grounded and certainly free of any bombast. It has been a real breakthrough season for him. He has played 14 times for Edinburgh where head coach Sean Everitt has trusted him in some of the club’s most high-profile games. He has started at tighthead in all four of the Champions Cup pool stage matches, including the win over Toulon.

His ability to handle the big occasion has not gone unnoticed.

“I spoke to Pieter de Villiers,” said Blyth-Lafferty. “He was just chatting about my game against the Dragons. He thought it was a good scrum performance from the team overall, then we went through my clips individually.

“He mentioned you are definitely in the mixer with the other guys. That’s good to hear but just keep going well, you’ve got one more game this season, you never know. I don’t want to think about it too much. It would be great, but you just need to wait and see I guess.”

Blyth-Lafferty has always been one step ahead. He had just turned 18 when he was part of the Scotland Under-20 team which won the World Rugby U20 Trophy in 2024. Earlier that year, at 17, Scotland had wanted him to play in the U20 Six Nations but were denied by World Rugby rules: he was deemed too young.

Following in Zander’s footsteps

He has now come of age and the Boroughmuir product would relish a call-up to the full squad, potentially following in the footsteps of Zander Fagerson, Scotland's long-established first-choice tighthead, who made his Scotland debut at 20.

“It would be class, definitely. I’d like to think that I’m ready for it, but at the end of the day, that’s up to the coaches and it’s their decision. It’s something I need to take on the chin - whether it happens or whether it doesn’t - and just keep working hard and keep my head down.”

Meanwhile, lock Callum Hunter-Hill has extended his contract with Edinburgh, adding a further year to his existing deal to keep him at the club to the end of the 2027-28 season.