Rufus McLean (born 2 March 2000) is a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

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. He plays for the

Houston SaberCats The Houston SaberCats are an American professional rugby union team based in Houston, Texas, that competes in Major League Rugby (MLR). The team was founded in 2017. The SaberCats organization was born from one of the founding amateur rugby clubs ...

Major League Rugby Major League Rugby (MLR) is a professional rugby union competition in the United States. The league comprises 11 teams. While operating outside of the governance and oversight of the national governing body, the league is officially sanctioned ...

. Previously, he played for

Glasgow Warriors The Glasgow Warriors are a professional rugby union side from Scotland. The team plays in the United Rugby Championship league and in the European Professional Club Rugby tournaments. In the 2014–15 season they won the Pro12 title and beca ...

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 ...

and

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 ...

before being sacked January 2023, after pleading guilty to domestic abuse. McLean's primary position is

wing A wing is a type of fin that produces both Lift (force), lift and drag while moving through air. Wings are defined by two shape characteristics, an airfoil section and a planform (aeronautics), planform. Wing efficiency is expressed as lift-to-d ...

or fullback. Whilst at

Merchiston Castle School Merchiston Castle School is an independent boarding school for boys in the suburb of Colinton in Edinburgh, Scotland. It has around 470 pupils and is open to boys between the ages of 7 and 18 as either boarding or day pupils; it was modelled ...

, he played every position from 9 to 15.

Rugby Union career

Professional career

McLean signed his first professional contract for Glasgow Warriors in June 2020. He made his debut for Glasgow Warriors in the re-arranged Round 9 of the

2020–21 Pro14 The 2020–21 PRO14 (also known as the ''Guinness PRO14'' for sponsorship reasons) was the twentieth season of the professional rugby union competition originally known as the Celtic League. It was the fourth season to be referred to as the ''P ...

against . He won the Warriors 'Try of the Season' award for 2020/21 for a try against Dragons at the Principality Stadium. His time at Glasgow Warriors was cut short when the club terminated his contract after he pleaded guilty in court to domestic abuse against his girlfriend, stating that his actions "constituted gross misconduct and breach of contract". It was revealed in court that McLean abused his partner for a period of over two years, for which he was issued a 10-year non-harassment order and sentenced to 120 hours of community service. He was announced in the American Raptors squad for 2024.

International career

McLean has been capped at Scotland U18s and Scotland U20s scoring 4 tries in 6 appearances for the latter. McLean received his first call up to the senior

squad in March 2021 for the

2021 Six Nations Championship The 2021 Six Nations Championship (known as the Guinness Six Nations for sponsorship reasons) was the 22nd Six Nations Championship, the annual rugby union competition contested by the national teams of England national rugby union team, England, ...

. He made his

debut against

Tonga Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in the southern Pacific Ocean. accordin ...

on 30 October 2021. Scotland won the match 60 - 14, with McLean scoring 2 tries. He was capped by Scotland 'A' on 25 June 2022 in their match against Chile.

International tries

: ''As of 30 October 2021''

References

External links

* 2000 births Living people Sportspeople from Boston Rugby union players from Massachusetts Glasgow Warriors players Rugby union wings Rugby union fullbacks Scotland international rugby union players Scottish rugby union players Scotland A international rugby union players People educated at Merchiston Castle School Alumni of the University of Strathclyde American Raptors players American emigrants to Scotland Houston SaberCats players {{Scotland-rugbyunion-bio-2000s-stub