Ali Price

BT Sport Scottish Rugby Academy scrumhalf Ali Price has signed a professional contract with Glasgow Warriors.

The 22-year-old, who is the latest Stage 3 player to graduate from the Scottish Rugby academy system, will be staying at Scotstoun until at least May 2016.

Kings Lynn-born Price has made 9 appearances for the Warriors and was part of the Guinness PRO12 title-winning squad last season.

The Scotland Under 20 scrumhalf was also in the Glasgow squad which won the Melrose 7s earlier this year.

He previously played for Bedford Blues and was part of the Saracens Storm ‘A’ league set-up.

Ali Price said: “It’s a huge honour to sign my first professional contract and I’m looking forward to continuing my career in Glasgow with the Warriors.

“I’ve developed a lot as a player over the last 12 months, having had the opportunity to train and play with the first team squad.

“I’m always learning and it’s great to be able to work closely with the likes of Mike (Blair), Henry (Pyrgos) and Grayson (Hart).”

Glasgow Warriors head coach Gregor Townsend said: “We’re delighted to see another player come through our Academy system and Ali deserves this opportunity.

“He works really hard in training and has made real improvements to his game in the past 12 months.

“It’s great for him to have experienced players around him and we look forward to seeing him continue to develop within our environment.”

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Footage:

I first saw the young Ali Price, 20 at the time, play in a preseason friendly for Glasgow Warriors a few years ago and went to the game with a view to seeing how he would fare as he had played for Scotland Under 20s. Thought Price had quite a good game, even considering the level of opposition, he looked quite nippy and varied his play nicely, what stood out for me was that he seemed quite confident for someone so young and was quite keen to take on the defence and go on a few darting runs.

It could be a bit hard to follow as this game was played before Glasgow Warriors had secured their kit sponsor that season and so they were playing in a kit without numbers that was very similar to Aberdeen Grammar’s and there is no audio commentary.  Ali Price scored 2 tries in that match, 1 in the first half and 1 in the second half. His first try can be seen around 2minutes 30 seconds into the clip and the second around 30 seconds later.

Unfortunately you can also see him limping later in the footage and I think he had to leave the field with the injury eventually. His progression thus far has been hampered somewhat by various injuries, and he has not yet gone on to the level I expected he could. Even when fit he has been in a queue behind some good scrumhalves at Glasgow. Hopefully he will go on to be a very good professional player.