A story for all We are delighted to introduce to you, Ben Cairns, George Heriot’s Schools' new Head of Rugby.

Ben joined after playing rugby professionally and coaching for the last 20 years. Ben spent 10 years at Edinburgh Rugby playing the position of centre. He ended his playing career in 2014 with a total of 117 appearances for Edinburgh and received 7 Caps for Scotland.

Forced to retire due to injury he quickly transitioned into the role of Head Coach for Currie RFC, then on to Stirling County and most recently Head Coach at our very own Heriot’s RFC.

Ben noted that children from Primary 5 at Heriot’s are given the opportunity to try rugby, but his hopes are that from Primary 4 he can start engaging with pupils and provide them with little taster sessions to see if that might increase participation levels across the school.

Ben has only been in his role for a just under 2 weeks and has already created a new training, skills and S&C programme allowing those in Upper Senior School, the opportunity to come into school before and after lessons start to train.

Speaking to Ben, he said that his main aim is to increase Participation and Performance across Rugby at Heriot’s as a whole.

We wish Ben all the best!