For as long as any of us can remember, there has always been a Scottish dimension to Wilmslow Rugby Club. Amongst the older brigade, Barry Fisher and David Barker went to schools in Scotland, Dollar Academy and Loretto respectively. The immediate past Wolves captain, Mike Black, a Northumbrian Borderer from Alnwick, is a Merchistonian. Robin Money also a Borderer from Hawick will be remembered too after his days at Leicester finished. Scottish Exiles include John Hood and Neil Pringle, both former London Scottish players and junior coaches at Wilmslow in the 1980s. There was George Campbell, Hutchesons GSFP, who was club president in the 80s. At about the same time, the Hamilton Accie, Norrie Russell came from West of Scotland and played first team rugby at Wilmslow in the back row. He was followed by one of those with dual allegiances, scrum half Chris Campbell, who played several times for what were then called the Anglo Scots in the 1990s. Others with a dual allegiance followed. Alex McLennan, a past captain, who still turns out for the Hawks, Andy Vassell, whose mother hails from Fife, and Ross Hunter, born of Glaswegian parents and brought up in Hong Kong, were all influential Wolves players during the early noughties and are now enthusiastic parent coaches with the minis. In the current Wolves side both Alex Donaldson and Bob MacCallum have Scottish antecedents. Andy Walker, another Merchistonian from Dumfrieshire, would still be playing for the Wolves today if he too hadn’t suffered a career ending injury last season. And there will be others too but none of them ever rose to the summit of the Scottish game, which makes the young Wilmslow boy, who joined the minis back sometime in the late 1990s, exceptional.

Nobody quite remembers exactly when Hamish Watson first appeared with his brothers and father Les but he quickly made an impression in the age group coached by Bryn Lewis and Harry Gradon. A year later his father asked that he move up an age group for a greater challenge, so he joined Chris George for five seasons but as he wasn’t particularly big for his age, he was put on the wing until his father stepped in again, worried that Hamish wasn’t growing as much as the others and would be better back in the age group that he should have been with any way. Chris, at that time club treasurer, wryly smiles when he thinks about the size of the fellows and physicality of the level at which Hamish now plays. He recalls he had a strong group with three of them in due course , Jordan Kennedy, Fraser Atkinson and Hamish, of course, being called up for Scotland trials at U19. Nick Marsh got an England U16 trial, alongside Owen Farrell, Jamie George, Manu Tuilagi et al. They won a lot of tournaments with Hamish scoring the winning try in the Cheshire U13s Cup Final at Caldy in 2003.

Back with Bryn and Harry, he immediately caught the eye again and was a regular until he left Terra Nova School to go to Oakham. Hamish though still retained his connection with Wilmslow Rugby, continued to play in the Juniors and Colts whenever he was back home at half term or in school holidays and to this day holds fond memories of his early days at the club.

His contempories included the current Wolves No. 8 Alex Taylor, second row Adam Hewitt and Elliot Brierley, currently playing Level 3 rugby in the backs for Macclesfield. Others of that group were full back/winger Lawrence James, whose rugby career was sadly cut short by injury, and scrum half Rory Bell, another Scottish Exile, now playing for the HAC in London. We always knew Hamish was good, said Adam Hewitt, but none of us imagined he would develop into an International rugby player, now being openly talked about as vying for a place in Warren Gatland’s Lions’ selection. Harry Gradon, another with a Scottish education, recalls with a chuckle a Colts game against a good Macclesfield team, in which Hamish and Elliot Brierley played as centres. That day, he says, the duo just tackled and tackled and tackled again and nobody and nothing could get past them. Hamish, he added, was always a bit quick and just seemed to relish tackling. Nothing much has changed in that regard.

Oakham has long been a feeder school for Leicester Tigers, producing the England flanker, Lewis Moody. It was hardly a surprise that Hamish should then join the Leicester Tigers Academy so ending his rugby days at Wilmslow without ever playing for the Wolves. In 2011 he opted for Scotland and was offered professional terms with firstly the Scottish 7s squad and subsequently in 2014 with Edinburgh. He might have come to wider prominence a year earlier had it not been for a broken jaw sustained whilst playing for Edinburgh two years ago in France against Bourgoin. His first full cap was when he came on as a substitute in 2014/15 against Italy and this season he has been a regular in Scotland’s line up.

Wilmslow’s Mini and Junior section has long been the source of some outstanding players, the Mulchrone brothers at Harlequins and London Irish, for example, and Chris Davies an Oxford Blue and now No. 8 at Richmond in the Championship. Hamish Watson, however, must now be the stand out inspiration for everyone involved in Mini and Junior rugby at the club.