How did you get into rugby?
I started in primary school, gave it up for a year to play football, then started again at high school and have been with Stirling County since I was 11.

Did you play other sports?
I enjoyed basketball and canoeing. I didn’t like the contact in rugby at first and people standing on my toes! But I didn’t like coaches shouting at you in football, so I went back to rugby!

Your sister Hannah plays rugby for Scotland…
Yes, she is older than me, 23. I’m chuffed to bits for her and my goal is to do as well as she has. We are the only two playing rugby in our family but our great grandad, Alex Smith, played for Rangers.

When did rugby become your main focus?
When I got into Scotland U18 I knew it was what I really wanted to do, and I joined Glasgow Warriors as an elite development player when I came out of the U18s.

Who has mentored you?
Millan Brown, the Stirling County U18 coach worked hard with me for two years.

When did you first play openside?
In the second year of U18s. I was a second-row before that but Eddie Pollock, the Scotland U18 coach, said I should be a seven and I played there a lot for Glasgow Hawks this year.

How will Scotland do at the World Championship?
We had a good win against England to kick off our Six Nations this year, so we’ll be looking to get one over them again. We should do okay and get out of our pool.

RW Verdict: Smith started all five games of the 2016 U20 Six Nations and scored a try in each of the first four. An Open University student of electrical engineering, he hopes to make his Glasgow Warriors debut during the autumn.

First published in the July 2016 edition of Rugby World magazine.