Newcastle Falcons vs Exeter Chiefs Programme

Meet Murray McCallum, the Dunfermline destroyer whose
propping prowess is helping Newcastle Falcons plot a forward
trajectory.
The 27-year-old was part of a major summer influx at Kingston
Park, continuing a career which has not been without its ups
and downs.
Playing for both professional Scottish franchises as well as the
national team, earning a big Premiership move only to have it
taken away by the game’s financial issues, McCallum is now
settled on Tyneside and looking ahead with positivity.
“I’m from Dunfermline which is in Fife, just to the north of
Edinburgh,” he says, when asked where it all began.
“My parents were both in the Police and we lived in the same
place with my little brother all the way through our upbringing.
I was a mini rugby player from seven years old at Dunfermline
RFC, and I loved it from day one. I was in the Scouts and one of
the parents there told my dad he should take me down to rugby,
because I was always a big kid. I was a prop from the outset,
and I’m not one of these guys who started at fly-half or No.8 and
made the gradual move towards the front row!”
“I was always a big
kid. I was a prop
from the outset!
Outside of rugby he used to head over to East End Park to
watch Dunfermline Athletic FC, although his primary footballing
allegiance is to the famous green and white hoops of Celtic,
thanks to his father.
“I went to primary and secondary school in Dunfermline before
moving to Perthshire for sixth form at Strathallan, which was
predominantly a rugby move,” says Murray.
MURRAY
MCCALLUM
“One of my coaches, Andy Henderson, brought me up
there, and it was a lot of fun. I played for Scotland Under-
18s but didn’t get offered a pro academy contract, so I
moved up to Aberdeen University. At the time I went up
to the North East – the proper North East, that is! - the
big things up there were oil and gas, and because of my
interest in geography and chemistry I started a geology
and petroleum geology degree.
“It was a tough course which I enjoyed, and I passed
every exam I sat, but the rugby started to take off again
so I wanted to pursue it. I went on a Scotland Under-19s
tour to Romania then got selected for Scotland Under-
20s, and after the 2015 Junior World Cup I moved to
Edinburgh to sign with the BT Academy, as it was called
then.
PLAYER INTERVEIW - MURRAY MCCALLUM
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