FINDLAY Thomson has described lifting a trophy in front of friends and family as he bowed out of Scotland under-20s action as “massive”.

The rugby star capped off his time with the country’s age group by helping them to win the World Rugby Trophy with victory over USA.

The triumph at Edinburgh’s Hive Stadium returns Scotland to the top tier of international rugby after a two-year absence.

He said: “It is massive. It was to top off a really good year.

“Having family and friends and after the game going to see them was amazing and having them watch was pretty cool.

“It is right up there for me.

“They were there for all of the games.

“I was not involved in the second game (a 101-0 victory over Hong Kong China) because I had picked up a knock but it was cool to have them all there papas, aunties and a lot of family there.”

Scotland defeated Samoa 123-15 in the opening game of the tournament at the beginning of last month.

That was followed by the victory over Hong Kong China and set up a winner-takes-all clash with Japan.

Former Dunbar Grammar School pupil Thomson said: “In the first two games, we went over 100 points and that was a good start to the tournament.

“The big one was the Japan game because they got relegated from the main Championship the year before. They were the team to beat and we fronted up and they could not deal with us physically, which was a good thing for us.

“The first 20 minutes of the second half, we pushed away.”

That set up the final against the USA, where Scotland won 48-10, despite not “clicking into gear”.

Thomson turned 20 last week, marking it with a holiday in Portugal, and is now too old for the age group as Scotland move up to the World Rugby Under-20s Championship, which was won by England last month.

Scotland can now look forward to locking horns with countries including France, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Argentina at the top table of the sport next year.

Thomson said: “You see the boys playing in it this year and they get massive recognition and experience to move into the professional game.

“The trophy is not as well documented.

“For the boys next year that will be in that age group, playing against the best teams in the world is massive.”

The future also looks bright for Thomson, who has moved back home to Dunbar.

The third-year finance student at the University of Glasgow has penned an academy contract with Edinburgh Rugby.

He will combine his university degree with playing for the Capital club and told Courier Sport he wanted to play rugby for as long as he could, while having his career in finance available as an option.