Barclay, John (rugby player)

Barclay joined Glasgow Warriors in 2004 after two consecutive victories in the Scottish Cup among school teams. ^[1] He made his debut for the club on November 5, 2004 in a match with the Border Revers at the age of 18 for 42 days and became the second youngest debutant of the Celtic League after Aled Bru ^[2] . In the spring of 2005, he received a John McFail grant and went on an internship to New Zealand rugby schools ^[3] . Upon his return, John first appeared in the starting lineup against Cardiff Blues ^[4] . He made his first attempt in stoppage time of the Heineken Cup match with Lenster ^[5] , and in June of the same year he signed with Glasgow his first professional contract for two years ^[6] .

In 2013 he moved to the Scarlets Welsh club ^[7] . The debut of the rugby player for the new club took place in the match with the old one, in which Glasgow won with a score of 12:17 ^[8] . The first points for the club Barclay earned a month later, which helped the club beat Ulster 17: 9 ^[9] . Two years later, in his jubilee, fiftieth game for the Scarlets, Barclay met again with his former club, the then reigning champion of Pro12 , and this time won. John received the title of player of the match, and two weeks later a new two-year contract with the club ^[10] .

John Barclay was invited to the Scottish national team at the age of 17, not yet making his debut for Glasgow on a professional level, but that year he did not play for the thistles. Prior to that, I visited various international tournaments with teams up to 19 and up to 21 years old. In 2007, he spent several matches for Scotland A ^[11] .

In August 2007, he was called up to the main team to participate in the World Cup , by then not having played a single match for it ^[12] . He made his international debut in the group stage match against the New Zealand national team , which was lost with a score of 0:40 ^[13] . In 2008, John began to regularly be called into the team. He was called up to the “thistles” for the Six Nations Cup , in which he played two matches (against France and Wales ) ^{[14] [15]} . In November of that year, he made his first attempt, having participated in the defeat of the Canadian national team 41: 0 ^[16] . The next time, Barclay was noted for productive actions two years later, having landed an attempt in the Six Nations Cup match against Wales ^[17] . In the summer of 2010 he was recognized as a player of the match in a meeting with the Argentine national team ^[11] , and in the fall - in a game against the South African national team ^[18] .

In 2011, Barclay was included in the team for the 2011 World Cup . At the same time, the back line of the "thistles", which in recent years consisted of three Glasgow players John Barclay, Johnny Beatty and Kelly Brown and was called Killer Bs, was not counted by Beatty, which was replaced by Ritchie Vernon ^[19] . At the tournament, John spent 3 matches: with Romania ^[20] , Argentina ^[21] and England ^[22] , two of which were lost. After that, Barclay continued to regularly be called into the "thistles" until his transfer to the Scarlets . For two years - from the end of 2013 until the summer of 2015 - John did not play for the Scottish national team, which, in the end, began to be explained by the neglect of head coach Vern Cotter for players acting outside the country ^{[23] [24]} .

In June 2015, Barclay was included in the expanded Scottish national team for the 2015 World Cup ^[25] and held one test match before him, bringing his third attempt to the Italians ^[26] . However, John did not receive a call to the tournament itself, which again raised a wave of indignation ^[27] . In February 2016, the rugby player played for the first time in 4 seasons at the Six Nations Cup ^[28] , where he made an attempt and held his fiftieth match for the “thistles” ^[29] .

• Player profile on the Llanelli Scarlets website.
• Player profile on the Scottish Rugby Union website.
• Player profile on ESPN.