After three years at Bristol Bears straight out of school, new signing Tom Wilstead brings a wealth of professional experience with him to London Scottish. After a year in London at Rosslyn Park, he also brings and understanding of the semi-pro game which will be of great help to his prospects this year.

However, Tom also comes with great ambition, describing the motivation for his move to the Exiles he said “I wanted to challenge myself and try and push myself to the next level with the goal to still get back to the highest standard I possibly can.”

Tom feels that London Scottish is the place to do that. With the Club playing an attractive brand of rugby which mirrors Tom’s style and preference he hopes to fit in well with the way Scottish play the game.

He said “having had a couple of chats with Bryan and watching the Club and seeing the boys and the way they play, what an opportunity to try myself at Championship level but with a good set of lads who can clearly push and give a great account of themselves.”

Speaking on his first weeks of pre season Tom expressed his enjoyment so far “it’s been great, learning new names, new faces and trying to get myself in the mix as much as I can. What I’ve found so far is that it’s quite a youthful squad so a lot of similar people but with a sprinkle of experience with the likes of Dan Nutton and Jonah Holmes.”

Looking ahead to the season and London Scottish’s chances of success this year Tom said “it’s a very exciting time, we’ve got some strong opposition coming up in the first three fixtures of our season. The squad is looking good and to test ourselves against some strong Premiership opposition is a great starting point but we want to fly into the first game of the Championship season and lay down a marker. We are looking at the top end of the season because we think we are good enough to be there!”

You can check out Tom and his teammates for the first time at the RAG on September the 20th as they take on Coventry. Get your tickets here.