Ross Thompson (born 10 April 1999)[1] is a Scotland international rugby union player. He plays for Edinburgh in the United Rugby Championship. Thompson's primary position is Flyhalf. Thompson has previously played for Glasgow Warriors and the Ayrshire Bulls.
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| Birth name | Ross Eric Thompson | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Date of birth | 10 April 1999 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Edinburgh, Scotland | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 86 kg (13 st 8 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Notable relative(s) | Eric Thompson, grandfather Kirsty Gilmour, cousin | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Career
editAmateur career
editThompson played for Glasgow Hawks. He made 14 appearances for the first team in 2017-18 season scoring 21 pts including 1 try[2] and 10 appearances in 2018-19 season scoring 21 points.[3] Peter Horne coached him at the club:[4]
When he came out of school, I coached him at Glasgow Hawks for a year, and I couldn’t believe how far ahead he was of where I would have been at his age. He had such a polished kicking game, he had a really nice passing game, and he was pretty studious – anything you asked him to do, he’d go away and learn it and come back – so he was just a good all-round player.
Professional career
editThompson was signed by the Ayrshire Bulls to play in the Super 6 league in 2019.[5] He scored 61 points for the club in the 2019-20 season, the 3rd highest points scorer in the league that season.[6]
Thompson signed for Glasgow Warriors in 2021.[7] He made his debut for Glasgow Warriors in Round 10 of the 2021–22 URC against Edinburgh coming on as a replacement on 2 January 2021.[8] He became Glasgow Warrior No. 319. He won man of the match in his first start for the club.[9] He became the third fastest player to reach 100 points for the Warriors, with a conversion in the URC match against Leinster on 4 June 2021, 153 days after his competitive debut. (Tommy Hayes with a competitive debut on 8 September 1997 secured his 100 points on 24 October 1997. This was only 77 days. Dan Parks with a competitive debut on 19 September 2003 secured his 100 points on 16 January 2004, totalling 119 days. Thompson is one of only 4 Warriors in history to break the 100 points milestone in their debut season for the club, the other being Calvin Howarth who reached that total in 189 days.)[10] He would go on to add to this in the match with a penalty that secured the win over the Irish provincial Leinster side, with Glasgow winning 15-12.[11] He won Young Player of the Season for the 2021-22 season in the annual Glasgow Warriors awards;[12] and then was later announced to also win the Player of the Season award too,[13] becoming the second player to win both the Young Player and Player of the Season award in the same season; George Horne pulling off the same feat in the 2017-18 season.
On 23 May 2024, Edinburgh announced Thompson would be joining the club ahead of the 2024-25 season.[14] He made his debut for Edinburgh against Leinster on 20 September 2024, scoring four points.
International career
editThompson has been capped by Scotland U20.[15] In June 2021 he was called up to the Scotland squad for the Summer internationals.[16]
Thompson made his Scotland debut against Tonga on 30 October 2021. Scotland won the match 60 - 14, Thompson scoring 2 conversions.[17]
He was capped by Scotland 'A' on 25 June 2022 in their match against Chile.[18]
Family
editThompson's grandfather Eric Thompson represented Scotland at cricket; his uncle Graeme Thompson represented Scotland at rugby league; and his cousin Kirsty Gilmour is a Commonwealth Games medalist for Scotland in Badminton.[19][20]
References
edit- ^ "Ross Thompson". Ultimaterugby.com. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
- ^ "StackPath". www.glasgowhawks.com.
- ^ "StackPath". www.glasgowhawks.com.
- ^ "Pete Horne details the development of Glasgow Warriors' Ross Thompson". HeraldScotland.
- ^ Harper, Gavin (26 September 2019). "Thompson among latest Ayrshire Bulls recruits".
- ^ "Ross Thompson Signs Professional Contract With Glasgow Warriors". 4 February 2021.
- ^ "Ross Thompson signs his first professional contract with Glasgow Warriors". www.scotsman.com.
- ^ "1872 Cup: Edinburgh claim late win over Glasgow Warriors at Murrayfield". BBC Sport. 2 January 2021. Retrieved 2 January 2021.
- ^ "Ross Thompson wins man of the match on his first start for Glasgow Warriors". www.scotsman.com.
- ^ @GlasgowWarriors (4 June 2021). "And with that conversion, @Thompson_Ross10 reaches 100 points for Glasgow Warriors and becomes the fastest player…" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ "Glasgow Warriors 15-12 Leinster". Glasgow Warriors.
- ^ @GlasgowWarriors (7 June 2021). "Time to announce our first award winner of the week, and it's a hotly-contested one - it's the @LandRoverRugby Youn…" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ "Ross Thompson on how he made most of lockdown after being voted Warriors' Player of the Year".
- ^ https://edinburghrugby.org/news-and-features/edinburgh-rugby-secure-homecoming-signing-of-thompson/
- ^ Barnes, David (22 February 2018). "U20 6N preview: Ross Thompson on learning to swim in the deep end". The Offside Line.
- ^ "Scotland: Seventeen uncapped players in squad for summer Tests". BBC. 1 June 2021. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
- ^ "Scotland v Tonga".
- ^ "Chile v Scotland A".
- ^ "School's Pride as Ross Thompson Shines on the Rugby Field". ESMS. 21 January 2021.
- ^ "Glasgow Warriors | Ross Thompson". www.glasgowwarriors.com.