Fergus Matthew Andrew Thomson, who captained Scotland A in the 2008 Barclays Churchill Cup in Canada and the USA, won his first cap as a substitute in the Bank of Scotland Corporate International against Ireland at Murrayfield in August 2007, only a month after he had been called into the Rugby World Cup training squad as a replacement for the injured Dougie Hall. His international debut was followed only three days later with his selection in the finalised World Cup squad, and his second cap, also as a replacement, followed against South Africa two weeks after his first. His first start, his eighth cap, was against Italy in Rome in Scotland’s final match in the 2008 Six Nations Championship. Fergus has also played in 14 games for Scotland A, including all three in each of the Barclays Churchill Cup tournaments in 2006, 2007, and 2008: he was captain of the team in the most recent of these. Most recently he has played in Scotland A ties against Tonga in November 2009 and Italy A in February 2010. He experienced Heineken Cup rugby with Glasgow Warriors as a 19-year-old when he appeared as a replacement in the match against Sale Sharks at Heywood Road in January 2003, though it was nearly two years later before he made his Celtic League debut as a substitute in the Hughenden victory against The Borders in November 2004.

His first start for Glasgow was not until three years after his debut, and that, too, was in a Heineken Cup tie, when Warriors beat Bourgoin at Firhill in January 2006. By then, he had played 20 Glasgow games as a replacement. Fergus had earlier worn the Scotland colours in under-19 and under-21 international rugby. His under-19 honours included the IRB’s 2002 World Junior Championship, and in the two subsequent years he played in all but one of Scotland’s 21 under-21 internationals, with a run of 16 in a row that included a 33-22 win against England at Newbury in the 2003 IRB Under 21 World Championship. Fergus, a former pupil of Bell Baxter High School in Cupar, Fife, is a member of the Scottish Institute of Sport. His father, Mel, is a former British Universities’ weight-lifting and boxing champion.