Most recently, he was in the Scotland squad who reached the Cup semi-finals in the IRB Twickenham and Murrayfield tournaments in May 2009. He scored the two tries in the 14-12 win against Samoa by 14-12 in the Murrayfield event, a result that promoted Scotland to the semi-finals a week after the Twickenham sevens, where they had reached that stage of an IRB tournament for the first time. Less than a month later he played two games for Scotland A in the IRB Nations Cup success in Bucharest.
A third A international appearance follow in the 38-7 win against Tonga at Netherdale, Galashiels, in November 2009. In 2010, he played for Scotland A against Ireland A and Italy A, Georgia, Namibia, Argentina Jaguars and USA Eagles, while in January 2011 he started at inside centre in the win over Ireland Wolfhounds. He was back at 12 for the 11-3 win over Italy A the following week.
John spent two summers playing rugby in the Southern Hemisphere between 2002 and 2003. In 2002 he was in the Borders’ development squad who visited New Zealand, and he played for the Fraser Tech club in Hamilton, Waikato. In 2003 he played for the Wests club in Canberra, Australia.
A former captain of Hawick Wanderers, John represented the Borders at under-19 and under-20 and played for Scotland under-19 against Italy in 2002, and he was in the Scotland squad for the IRB Under 21 World Championship in Scotland in 2004, playing in three of the five games. He was on the bench for Scotland A in the February 2008 win against Italy, though not called on to play.
A Hawick High School former pupil and Heriot-Watt University sports science graduate, John signed for Edinburgh in summer 2007, and his contract was extended in 2008 for two more years. He was in the Hawick side who won BT Premiership Division One, the BT Cup and Border League honours in 2001-2002 and scored a hat trick of tries in Hawick’s BT Cup quarter-final win against Aberdeen GSFP in 2004.
In April 2006 John was instrumental in helping Heriot’s to the final of the CALA Melrose sevens, losing out to Newcastle Falcons in the final at the Greenyards.
