Stafford McDowall (born 24 February 1998) is a Scottish professional

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 its m ...

player for

Glasgow Warriors 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 became t ...

. His usual position is at the

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

position, though he can also cover at full back.

Rugby Union career

Amateur career

McDowall started his rugby career at

Kirkcudbright Academy Kirkcudbright Academy is a state funded, six-year secondary school in Kirkcudbright, Scotland with about 400 pupils and 87 staff including teaching, support and administration. Notable alumni *Jennie Adamson was a Labour Party politician in t ...

and Stewartry RFC then

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 a ...

. He made a

U17 side in August 2014. From there he played for Edinburgh U18 and then switched back to play for Glasgow U20. McDowall now plays for

Ayr Ayr (; sco, Ayr; gd, Inbhir Àir, "Mouth of the River Ayr") is a town situated on the southwest coast of Scotland. It is the administrative centre of the South Ayrshire Subdivisions of Scotland, council area and the historic Shires of Scotlan ...

. He was Ayr's Young Player of the Season for 2016-17. He entered the

Scottish Rugby Academy The Scottish Rugby Academy, for sponsorship reasons the Fosroc Scottish Rugby Academy, is a national academy structure designed to give Scotland's young rugby stars a pathway into the professional game. The academy structure is based on 4 regiona ...

in season 2016-17 as a Stage 1 - 2 player. He graduated to the Stage 3 professional phase of the academy in the 2017-18 season. He was assigned Ayr in the Pro draft for the Scottish Premiership sides from Glasgow Warriors for the season 2017-18

Professional career

McDowall was enrolled in the BT Sport

as a Stage 3 player. Stage 3 players are aligned to a professional club and given regional support. He made his debut for

in their opening match of the 2017-18 season - against

Northampton Saints Northampton Saints (officially Northampton Rugby Football Club) is a professional rugby union club from Northampton, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. They were formed in 1880 as "Northampton St. James", ...

Bridgehaugh Park Bridgehaugh Park is a rugby union ground in Stirling, Scotland, with a capacity of approximately 4,000. It is the home of Stirling County RFC, who currently play in the Scottish Premiership. Location It is situated in a meander of the River F ...

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 ...

on 19 August 2017. He made his first appearance for season 2018-19 for the Warriors in their 50 -17 demolition of Harlequins at

North Inch North Inch is a large public park in Perth, Scotland. About 54 hectares in size, it is one of two "Inches" in Perth, the other being the smaller, 31-hectare South Inch, located half a mile across the city. The inches were granted to the city, whe ...

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

on 18 August 2018. He graduated from the Academy and signed his first professional contract with Glasgow Warriors on 12 December 2018.

International career

He played for Scotland U18s in a home v

Scottish Exiles 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 id ...

match in February 2016. He has also played for Scotland U18s against Wales U18. McDowall played for Scotland U19 (Development XV) in 2016 against Georgia U20. He scored 2 tries in the match. McDowall is now playing for the Scotland U20s. In January 2019 McDowall was named in

Scotland's Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

Six Nations squad.

References

External links

Scotland U20 player profile

Ayr RFC player profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:McDowall, Stafford 1998 births Living people Ayr RFC players Glasgow Warriors players Rugby union centres Rugby union players from Dumfries Scottish rugby union players Stewartry RFC players People educated at Kirkcudbright Academy People educated at Merchiston Castle School