MAX POWER

His jump to senior standout has impressed many in Scotland and Glasgow's MAX WILLIAMSON has shown there is a way forward

- MARK PALMER

MANY A CHICKEN has come home to roost at Murrayfield after years of inertia and underinvestment, with the Scottish game wracked with angst over the state of its youth development structures.

Through his increasingly impressive displays in the Glasgow boilerhouse, Max Williamson has emerged as a welcome counterpoint to all the doom and gloom, even if in certain regards the case of the 21-year-old lock bears out a number of systemic flaws. 

Part of the Warriors academy since 2020, the Stirling native had long been identified as a young man with the aptitude and the attitude to succeed at professional level, but he soon ran into the all-too-familiar roadblocks of a lack of meaningful adult rugby and delays in him reaching his full physical potential.

At 6ft 7in, Williamson always had the height, but in his two years with the Scotland U20 team (they finished bottom without a win in both 2021 and 2022) he sometimes looked underpowered, scrawny even. Having fully bought into a conditioning plan devised by Franco Smith, the Warriors head coach, and Cillian Reardon, the club’s head of athletic performance, the former Dollar Academy pupil made significant gains in a short space of time, and got some valuable exposure via a couple of Super Series stints with Stirling Wolves, the semi-professional side attached to his county alma mater.

Arguably the most important break, however, occurred over the border when Wiliamson spent the final three months of last season on loan at Doncaster. It was in the unfussy surrounds of Castle Park that he took on board some important lessons – about the game and himself – which served as a launchpad for his subsequent Scotstoun success.