Year One Student Doctor Matthew Deehan was thrilled to receive his first call-up for the Scotland rugby team to take part in the Under 20 Six Nations tournament. We caught up with Matthew to chat about his call-up, and how he balances his studies with his rugby training.
Firstly, please can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
I’m a Year One Student Doctor here at the University of Liverpool and I’m originally from Newcastle. I decided to study at Liverpool as the city itself I felt was very similar to Newcastle and the medical school itself looked great. On top of that there are several clubs nearby on the Wirral that play a high standard of rugby.
What has been your journey with rugby so far?
I originally started playing at my school RGS Newcastle in Year 7, but only started to take it seriously when I joined the Newcastle Falcons junior academy a year early in Year 10. This involved travelling nationally to play the other academies in the country, which was very daunting at the time being only 14 playing against some 16-year-olds! At the moment I am a professional player up at Newcastle but on a week-to-week basis I play for my club on loan over on the Wirral.
Lineout during a rugby game between Scotland and England U20s
Congratulations on being selected for the under 20 Scotland rugby team! How did it feel when you received news of your call-up?
It was a proud feeling being called up into the squad as it’s the culmination of a lot of hard work over several years.
My career so far in rugby hasn’t been entirely plain sailing through plenty of injuries and setbacks from coaches’ decisions so it’s great to finally get the call-up.
What’s the next step following your call-up? What upcoming matches or tournaments will you be in the squad for?
At the moment I am two games into the Under 20s Six Nations tournament, having just played against England and Wales. Upcoming we have France, Italy and Ireland in this tournament and then we get a break until the summer when we compete in the junior World Cup. So far this tournament has been enjoyable (despite narrowly losing to both teams) and I’m looking forward to getting abroad for some of our latter matches and playing amongst hostile opposition crowds!
How have you found the balance between your studies and training?
So far it has been manageable. I think this has been helped by a lot of our lecture content being online so when I get an hour or two between training and meetings etc I can sit down and get through the content. Obviously I am missing some in person content but the Year One team has been great in rearranging what I’m missing to my weeks off from rugby training.
Balancing between studies and training has something I’ve done for a while, albeit not quite at this level, so it’s something I’m fairly accustomed to.
Have you been able to get involved with rugby through university clubs or societies?
I’m currently on loan to a club down here in Liverpool so have been limited to playing one game so far for the University. I have been impressed with the facilities and Phil Hewitt has been brilliant working as the the strength and conditioning lead, linking up with my other coaches at Newcastle and Scotland. The medics also run their own rugby club, the LMSRUFC, which a lot of my friends are members off so I have been along to training a few times to socialise.
Discover more
- Find out how you can join the Liverpool Medics Rugby Club and other sports societies at the School (link).