Harry Paterson has made a big impact in just a handful of games for Edinburgh, culminating in a first call-up to the Scotland squad on Tuesday.
But the 22-year-old full-back is determined to keep his feet on the ground, and insists he is far from the complete article.
Speaking 24 hours before Gregor Townsend announced his 39-man group for this year’s Six Nations, Paterson - who can just as comfortably play on the wing - implied that a lot of the progress he has made this season has been thanks to his world-class back-three team-mates such as Argentina’s Emiliano Boffelli and Scotland wingers Darcy Graham and Duhan van der Merwe. “It’s unbelievable how lucky we are to have that back three,” he said.
“Even with Blair Kinghorn gone now it’s still stacked. There is a slight language barrier with Boffelli, but he’s a great guy and always keen to discuss things with me. So I learn a lot from Boff, especially in the air.
“I’ve been fairly happy with my performances,” he continued when asked to assess his season so far. “But I’m still very inexperienced in a lot of ways, and I’ve got a lot to learn.
“There are always going to be little things I can improve on. I need to be a bit better in the air, which is something I consider a strength of mine, so I was a wee bit let down at the weekend [against Gloucester] that that wasn’t up to scratch from me.”
Paterson will be in the Edinburgh squad for tomorrow night’s [Friday] Challenge Cup pool decider against Scarlets, and is set to start if it is decided Graham should rest the quad niggle he picked up in the defeat by the English club. But no matter if he starts on the bench or on the field, head coach Sean Everitt has every confidence in his ability.
“He’s done extremely well,” Everitt said. “You can see he’s full of rugby. Every time he has put the jersey on this year he’s done exceptionally well. He was pretty much outstanding in the Ulster game away, and then on the weekend he had some really strong carries on the wing.
“He’s good under the high ball and he’s got a good kicking game. He’s a valuable player to us in a team where we’ve got a talented back three, and I’m sure he’s learning a lot from the international experience that we have there.”
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