Scotland’s amateur rugby players are to get the chance to strut their stuff on the international stage twice this season. After the success of their inaugural games against Ireland, the programme is being expanded to include Wales and Ian Rankin, appointed to coach the side for the second time, reckons that there could be scope to expand further to include other amateur international sides from the likes of Spain and Russia.

The only downside is that the timetable has saddled the Scots Club International side with two away games, in Caerphilly against Wales on February 8, the day before the national team play at the Millennium Stadium, and on February 22 at Donnybrook against Ireland, the eve of the Six Nations game at Croke Park.

Rankin, who coached the side to victory against Ireland last season, expressed his delight not only at the decision to expand the programme but because it is starting to win wider recognition among players, coaches and fans across the country.

“I’ve lost count of how often I have seen mention in a club programme that so-and-so is playing well and should be in the Club International side, or mention that a player was in the side last season,” he said.

“Three of the guys who were there last time have gone on to pick up professional contracts, so it is obviously working. It is recognition for players who may not want to go pro, and a shop window for the late developers.”

With the hard work of compiling dossiers on every leading club player in Scotland starting last season, Rankin had already begun the job of preparing for this campaign and will get a chance to see the players in action when he takes a Co-Optimists side to play Edinburgh Academicals in their 150th anniversary celebration match just after Christmas.

“I talk to all the coaches about the players, not just the ones from their clubs but players they have come up against, and with the likes of Cammie Mather, Craig Chalmers, Ian Jardine or Ian Barnes all coaching here at the moment, there is a fair amount of international experience there for me to draw on,” he said.

What confirmed in Rankin’s mind that the project is worth the time is the amount of debate that he encountered in clubhouses up and down the country. The rules ban any player who has had a professional contract in the past three years, which rules out the likes of Calum Cusiter and Fergus Pringle at Boroughmuir, but even so he knows that no two people would select the same side.

“It is a good showcase for the quality of club rugby in Scotland,” he said. “These guys work so hard, they are training almost every day, some of them are working harder than the professionals did when we first went full-time, so they deserve this sort of recognition for all the effort they put in.”