Matthew Scott (born 30 September 1990) is a Scottish

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

player with 40 caps for

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

who most recently played for

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

in the

United Rugby Championship The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. For sponsorship reasons the league is known as the Vodacom United Rugby Championship in ...

. His regular playing position is Centre.

Early life

Scott was born in

Dunfermline Dunfermline (; , ) is a city, parish, and former royal burgh in Fife, Scotland, from the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. Dunfermline was the de facto capital of the Kingdom of Scotland between the 11th and 15th centuries. The earliest ...

, Scotland. He was deputy head boy at Currie High School. In 2008 he embarked on full-time study at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

while developing as a rugby player. He graduated with a law degree in 2013. Scott had impressed in the 2010–11 season as a Scotland age-grade internationalist and his part in Currie's recent rise to prominence, domestically in Premier 1 and the

British and Irish Cup The British and Irish Cup was an annual rugby union competition for second tier, semi-professional clubs and the reserves or developing teams from professional clubs from Great Britain and Ireland. It took place for the first time in the 2009� ...

. Before signing, Scott represented Scotland at under-19 and under-20 in 2009 and 2010 respectively. Scott played for Edinburgh's district interstate u-17 and u-18 teams.

Club career

In April 2011 Scott joined

as an elite development player. Scott made his competitive début on 2 September 2011 against

Cardiff Blues Cardiff Rugby () are one of the four professional Welsh rugby union teams. Based in Cardiff, the team play at Cardiff Arms Park. Originally formed in 1876, from 2003 to 2021 the first team was known as the Cardiff Blues before rebranding back ...

. His first try came against

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

Celtic League The Celtic League is a pan-Celtic organization, founded in 1961, that aims to promote modern Celtic identity and culture in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, Cornwall and the Isle of Man – referred to as the Celtic nations; it places pa ...

winners

Munster Munster ( or ) is the largest of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the south west of the island. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" (). Following the Nor ...

after he dummied and cut inside, before palming off two Munster defenders to score under the posts. Since then he has become a familiar feature for Edinburgh, combining his upbringing as a stand-off with his strength in the tackle to great effect as a play-making centre with an eye for the try line. Having become a regular feature in the Edinburgh Rugby midfield, Scott signed a contract extension in October 2012 that will keep him at the club until 2015. By the middle of January 2016 he had played 70 times for Edinburgh and had scored 14 tries. On 16 January 2016, an announcement that Scott had signed for

Aviva Premiership Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition, consisting of 10 clubs, and is the top division of the English rugby u ...

side

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city, non-metropolitan district and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West England, South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean ...

, to join for the start of the 2016–17 season. His last match for Edinburgh was against the Cardiff Blues on 7 May 2016. On 21 February 2018, Scott re-signed with his hometown club

back in the

Pro14 The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. For sponsorship reasons the league is known as the Vodacom United Rugby Championship in ...

, on a two-year deal ahead of the 2018–19 season . On 29 April 2020 it was confirmed Scott will join English side

Leicester Tigers Leicester Tigers (officially Leicester Football Club) are a professional rugby union club based in Leicester, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. The club was founded in 1880 and since 1892 plays its home ...

from the 2020–21 season. Scott played as a replacement in the 2022 Premiership Rugby final as Tigers beat

Saracens file:Erhard Reuwich Sarazenen 1486.png, upright 1.5, Late 15th-century History of Germany, German woodcut depicting Saracens ''Saracen'' ( ) was a term used both in Greek language, Greek and Latin writings between the 5th and 15th centuries to ...

15–12. On 13 January 2023, Scott scored two tries as Leicester beat

ASM Clermont Auvergne Association Sportive Montferrandaise Clermont Auvergne () is a French professional rugby union club from Clermont-Ferrand in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes that currently competes in Top 14, the top level of the French league system. Clermont are two t ...

44–29 away to qualify for the 2022–23 European Rugby Champions Cup round-of-16. On 12 April 2024 Leicester announced that Scott would be leaving the club at the end of the season. On 2 August 2024, it was confirmed that Scott returns to his old club

for a third spell in his career for the 2024-25 season.

International career

Before going pro, Scott represented Scotland at under-19 and under-20 in 2009 and 2010 respectively. Scott made his age-grade international debut in the 55–13 success against Italy at Lasswade, Edinburgh, in March 2009, followed by the Dourdan match against France a month later. In 2010 he was recalled to the representative set-up for Scotland's under-20 6 Nations, playing in all but one match, featuring as a replacement in each of the four 6NC matches before playing in a further five Junior world Championship matches in Argentina. Scott made a try-scoring debut for Scotland A in February 2012 in the 35–0 win over England Saxons at Netherdale. The following month he gained his first international cap, coming on as a replacement in the RBS Six Nations match versus Ireland at the

Aviva Stadium Aviva Stadium, also known as Lansdowne Road (, ) or Dublin Arena (during UEFA competitions), is a List of stadiums in Ireland by capacity, sports stadium located in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, with a capacity for 51,711 spectators ...

. His first start for Scotland came in June, on tour against Australia. In the

2013 Six Nations Championship The 2013 Six Nations Championship, known as the 2013 RBS 6 Nations because of the tournament's sponsorship by the Royal Bank of Scotland, was the 14th series of the Six Nations Championship, the annual northern hemisphere rugby union championship ...

he started at inside centre in all of Scotland's matches. He appeared for Scotland in a mini-tournament in South Africa in the same year. He went on Scotland's tour to Japan in 2016.

References

External links

biography
at Gloucester Rugby {{DEFAULTSORT:Scott, Matt 1990 births Living people Scottish rugby union players Edinburgh Rugby players Rugby union players from Dunfermline Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Scotland international rugby union players Rugby union centres People educated at Currie High School Currie RFC players Scotland Club XV international rugby union players Leicester Tigers players Gloucester Rugby players 2015 Rugby World Cup players