Dundee HSFP’s flying wing James Fleming is happy to juggle university exams, playing for his club, training with Glasgow Warriors and travelling around the world with the Scotland sevens squad as he continues a meteoric rise through the rugby ranks.
The 23-year-old speedster from Perth has lit up club rugby since moving from Perthshire to Dundee at the start of last season with his prolific try-scoring in Premier One, gaining club international honours, a part-time pro contract and now on the world stage in the IRB World Series of sevens events.
After debuting with a bang in the Dubai and South Africans legs in December, James flies out at the end of the week for the next two tournaments in Wellington, New Zealand, and Las Vegas, in the USA, as one of the premier strike weapons in the shortened game.
Quite a rise for the former Perthshire mini who was passed by at development level and wasn’t even sure he wanted to try the top level of club rugby when approached by Dundee director of rugby Ian Rankin 18 months ago.
“I’d been at Perthshire from the minis at seven years old and was very loyal to the club, my idea was that I’d get to the top level with ‘Shire,” he said.
“Ranks offered me a chance at Premier One so I had a long think and I thought I’d just try pre- season and see how it went, and in the end I really enjoyed the club on both the playing and social side.”
James arrived at Mayfield having been Premier Three’s player of the year in 2008-09 and, although admitting to “taking a bit of time to find my feet,” was soon showing a clean pair of heels to defences, ending the season as the club’s top try scorer with 11.
That got him a chance to train with Glasgow and into the club international side.ImpossibleAfter a full pre-season under the eye of Warriors head coach Sean Lineen he has proved impossible to deal with this season in Premier One, scoring 22 tries in 12 games and scoring 150 points in all with occasional place-kicking.
That prolific record brought him to the attention of sevens head coach Graeme Shiel, and that brought the call-up for the IRB World Series.
“It’s been a planned development and the sevens has been the next step,” continued Fleming. “I think Sean Lineen was keen to see how I’d go at the next level and it’s been fantastic to get some rugby when we’ve been struggling to get games on during the last couple of months.”
Fleming added, “At Dundee we finally managed to get a cup game played at the weekend against Gala and it was almost like a pre-season again after eight or nine weeks off, and it was good to get on the pitch with us flying out to Wellington on Saturday.”
However, all this recognition has meant a juggling of priorities in his final year of a sports sciences degree at Stirling University, with exams having to be deferred and dissertations filed from the other side of the globe.
“I’ve got an exam this week deferred from December when we were in Dubai and my dissertation is due when I’m in Las Vegas with Scotland, so that will be interesting,” Fleming said.
“It’s been a battle to juggle everything but it’s a great opportunity for me.
“I’m not going to make any big statements about how far I can go in rugby, but I’m just going to work hard and give it 100% and if I do that, the opportunities will come my way.”
Head coach Graham Shiel has added three new faces to his squad with Dave McCall and Alex Dunbar called up from Glasgow Warriors while Currie’s Mark Cairns, brother of full internationalist Ben, also comes in.
Scotland sevens squad for IRB HSBC Sevens World Series in Wellington (February 4 and 5) and Las Vegas (Febuary 11 and 12):
Mark Cairns (Currie), David Denton (Edinburgh Rugby/Hawick), Struan Dewar (Edinburgh Rugby Elite Development/Heriot’s), Alex Dunbar (Glasgow Warriors), Dave McCall (Glasgow Warriors), James Fleming (Glasgow Warriors/Dundee HSFP), Fraser Harkness (Selkirk), James Johnstone (Glasgow Warriors Elite Development/ Currie), Scott Riddell (Stewart’s Melville), Ross Samson (Edinburgh Rugby), Andrew Skeen (Watsonians).