Andrew Scott Turnbull joined his hometown club in the summer of 2007. His prodigious turn of pace can always be relied upon to excite supporters and challenge tiring defences. Turnbull relishes performing on the Murrayfield turf and helped the Scotland 7s team to the Plate at the Edinburgh 7s in May 2010. He is Scotland’s top try scorer in IRB Sevens history.
He was among the top try-scorers at the IRB Rugby World Cup Sevens in Hong Kong, having topped the table at the end of the second day of competition with seven tries. His fast feet made him the talk of the tournament, and he helped Scotland to the quarter-finals and a top-eight finish. He was also instrumental in Scotland’s first top-eight finish of the season at the IRB Emirates Airline tournament in Dubai, but he was forced off the field through injury in the Cup quarter-final loss to New Zealand. He recovered and travelled with the squad to George, South Africa, and then two months later to Wellington in New Zealand and Los Angeles, USA before again helping his country to a top eight finish at the IRB Standard Chartered Singapore Sevens and the IRB Emirates Airline London Sevens.
Having recovered from a knee injury, Andrew made a comeback for Scotland at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in 2002 before travelling on to the IRB tournaments in Hong Kong and Singapore. He joined The Borders from Watsonians in 2003-2004 for a season before returning to the Edinburgh club, but he resumed a career in professional rugby when he joined Edinburgh in summer 2007. A former pupil of George Watson’s College and sports science student at Napier University, Andrew has represented Scotland at U19 and U21 levels as well as Scottish Schools, Edinburgh Rugby and the Edinburgh Rugby Development side. He was outstanding in Scotland’s run to their highest-ever finishing position in an IRB tournament – sixth at Twickenham in 2004, his whiplash acceleration troubling the strongest of sevens defences. Andrew has also played for the Barbarians.
