Murray McConnell (born 16 November 1992) is a former

Scotland Club XV The Scotland national Club XV rugby union team is one of several national rugby union teams behind the Scottish national side. The national Club XV takes the best players from club rugby in Scotland to form a side that regularly competes with a ...

international and

Nottingham Rugby Nottingham Rugby Club is a rugby union club based in Nottingham, England. The club's first team currently plays in the RFU Championship, the second tier of English Rugby. The first XV are nicknamed The Archers, in reference to the famous Robin ...

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

player who plays at the scrum-half position.

Rugby Union career

Amateur career

McConnell played for West of Scotland before being noticed by Glasgow Warriors and joined the Warriors as an Elite Development Player in 2010. He was assigned to

Ayr Rugby Club Ayr Rugby Football Club is a rugby union club. Its professional men's side currently plays as Ayrshire Bulls in the Super 6 competition; and its women's side play in the . The club also runs a "Club XV" which competes in the Tennent's Nationa ...

to aid his development. He was voted Ayr's 1st XV player of the year in season 2013–14, securing 30 points that season in scoring six tries.

Professional career

He played in two pre-season friendly matches for the Warriors in 2010 against

Dundee HSFP Dundee HSFP is a former rugby union team that played their home games at the Mayfield Playing Fields, Dundee, Scotland. The club disbanded in 2021. The team was founded in 1880 by former pupils of the High School of Dundee. The men's side play ...

and Sale Sharks. His first competitive match for the Warriors came in an away game to

Scarlets The Scarlets () are one of the four professional Welsh rugby union teams and are based in Llanelli, Wales. Their home ground is the Parc y Scarlets stadium. They play in the United Rugby Championship and the European Rugby Champions Cup (which ...

in January 2012 as a substitute. In the 2014–15 season McConnell graduated from the EDP ranks and secured a one-year partnership professional contract with Glasgow Warriors. This again allowed him to play for Ayr Rugby Club when free from Warriors duty. He played in a Glasgow Warriors A side against an

Edinburgh Rugby Edinburgh Rugby (formerly Edinburgh Reivers, Edinburgh Gunners) is one of the two professional rugby union teams from Scotland. The club competes in the United Rugby Championship, along with the Glasgow Warriors, its oldest rival. Edinburgh pl ...

A side on 22 September 2014 in a match in

Stirling Stirling (; sco, Stirlin; gd, Sruighlea ) is a city in central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the royal citadel, the medieval old town with its me ...

. He was used as a substitute in the Warriors'

Pro12 The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. The current name was adopted in 2021 when the league expanded to include four South Afr ...

matches at home against

Connacht Connacht ( ; ga, Connachta or ), is one of the provinces of Ireland, in the west of Ireland. Until the ninth century it consisted of several independent major Gaelic kingdoms ( Uí Fiachrach, Uí Briúin, Uí Maine, Conmhaícne, and Del ...

on 26 September and against

Treviso Treviso ( , ; vec, Trevixo) is a city and '' comune'' in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 84,669 inhabitants (as of September 2017). Some 3,000 live within the Ven ...

on 31 October 2014. McConnell secured his first competitive start for Glasgow Warriors on 28 February 2015 when he started at scrum-half away to Munster at

Thomond Park Thomond Park is a stadium in Limerick in the Irish province of Munster. The stadium is owned by the Irish Rugby Football Union and has Munster Rugby, Shannon RFC and UL Bohemian RFC as tenants. Limerick FC played home games in Thomond Park fr ...

. On 7 May 2015 it was announced that McConnell would sign for

at the end of the 2014–15 season.

International career

He was part of the Six Nations Under 20s Championship international squad in 2012 and captained the Scotland team against the

English Counties The counties of England are areas used for different purposes, which include administrative, geographical, cultural and political demarcation. The term "county" is defined in several ways and can apply to similar or the same areas used by each ...

that same year. He was capped by the

side.

Coaching career

McConnell is currently the head coach on

Long Eaton RFC Long Eaton RFC are a rugby union club based in Long Eaton, Derbyshire, UK. They play in Midlands 1 East following their promotion from Midlands 2 East (North) as champions at the end of the 2020-21 season with over 100 points. Prior to that the ...

in RFU Midlands 1 East North Division.

References

External links

McConnell set for Nottingham switch
1992 births Living people Scottish rugby union coaches Scottish rugby union players Glasgow Warriors players Nottingham R.F.C. players Ayr RFC players West of Scotland FC players Scotland Club XV international rugby union players Alumni of Glasgow Caledonian University People educated at Lenzie Academy {{Scotland-rugbyunion-bio-stub