You’d hardly know it by simply speaking to the guy, but one of the youngest members of the Glasgow squad lined up against a 2007 World Cup winning playmaker and almost led the Warriors to a notable scalp in the Heineken Cup at the weekend.

Twenty-year-old Ruaridh Jackson was at school in Aberdeen just three years ago and has since emerged as a huge talent and one which bodes well for the Warriors, and Scotland, as both build for the future.

His rise to professional rugby started when Warriors head coach, Sean Lineen, spotted the youngster playing for Robert Gordon’s College at the Royal Navy Scottish Schools 7s at Murrayfield.

Carrying an injury from that tournament, Jackson was unable to tour with the Scotland U18 squad in the Home Nations Championship later that year. However, he had done enough to catch the eye of Lineen.

Speaking exclusively to the Glasgow Warriors' weekly ezine, he said: “After the Sevens, I missed out on the U18s Home Nations championship because I got injured. But he [Lineen] saw me at the Sevens and I got a phone call shortly after.

“I was actually driving with my mum out to see my grandparents when I got a call from a random number. I don’t always pick them up but this time I picked it up to see who it was and it was Sean Lineen so I thought ‘we better pull over here and listen to this’. That was the first time I ever spoke to him on the phone. Then I came down for a meeting.

“At the meeting he said he obviously saw me at that sevens tournament and he was quite impressed and keen to see how I could get involved in some way be it part-time or fulltime. But I thought I may as well move down and make it fulltime and give it a proper go. It seems to have worked out well so far.”

That first meeting secured the dream of playing professional rugby for Jackson and a player who has got ‘it’ according to Lineen.

‘It’ is sometimes better known as the ‘x factor’ however; it’s unlikely we’ll see Jackson gracing the stage with pop star wannabes rather than mixing it with the cream of world rugby.

In preparation for Sunday’s game, it was actually that very programme that consumed Jackson’s attention as he tried to clear his mind the night before, a night that saw him “devastated that Diana got voted out.”

Ruaridh was obviously in Lineen’s plans in advance of ‘game week’ as Jackson was told about his selection on the Tuesday prior to the match. But as Lineen’s words would fill most with nerves, it brewed excitement in the youngster.

“He told me during a team meeting before training on Tuesday. I was maybe a bit more nervous during training but I just had to really switch on. I was just excited more than anything.

“Everyone [in the Glasgow squad] was really good about it. They all said congratulations and good luck and all that so it was nice.”

Bath is a town steeped in history set amidst the heartland of English rugby with the famous ground, The Rec, situated in the middle of town on the banks of the river Avon. It’s now a place Jackson is unlikely to forget especially considering his performance and his spectacular interception try to give Glasgow a real chance of victory.

“Bath is a nice town. I went for a walk around once we arrived on the Saturday with Max Evans.

“The pitch and the crowd were good as well. It’s [The Rec] pretty awesome. The crowd are really close to the pitch so there’s a good atmosphere.

“I saw the big wind up [in Bath’s attack] so I thought I might as well go for it [the interception]. It was all or nothing really; I think we may have lost a try if I hadn’t got it. It was pretty risky but it came off.

“It’s always good to get that first start at stand-off out of the way. It gives you the confidence to know that you can do it.”

Meanwhile, Ruaridh returns to his flat in Glasgow’s South Side where he lives with fellow Warriors prop Moray Low and new recruit Chris Kinloch as the squad kick-start their preparations for the return leg at Firhill on Sunday (14 December, kick-off 2pm).