Tyneside teenager and former Sport Newcastle Rising Star recipient Crawford Matthews is on course to become the North East’s flag-bearer in rugby league’s Super League, after making his full international debut last weekend.
Fresh from his first outing for the Scotland senior professional side, and with an Ashes victory under his belt, the Heaton 19-year-old’s sights are now set on a full-time career with Hull FC.
Matthews describes his Scotland call-up as an “honour” he “didn’t think would come around this soon”, despite having represented Scotland at every level from Under16; Under18; Students, ‘A’, 9′s and now the full senior national team – a distinction no Scot has achieved before.
But the former Gateshead Panthers and Gateshead Thunder winger hopes a starting role in a 26-6 victory over Ireland in a European Test Series clash in Glasgow on Sunday will also help him make a major mark at the highest club level.
Having earned selection for the GB and Ireland Academic Lions squad to tour Australia in the summer with an outstanding performance in the Student Four Nations tournament earlier this year, Matthews try scoring exploits in the final match helped inflict Australia’s students’ first ever home defeat in a test, let alone a series. By beating the Australian’s at their national game ensured the academic ashes returned to Britain for the first time ever.
“To go out there and become the best student side in the world was an incredible achievement,” said Matthews, who enrolled last year at the University of Hull to read history and politics, but was also a display of his commitment to carving out a professional career in Yorkshire’s East Riding.
And it was his fine run of form in the Hull FC Under-20 team which landed him a place in a much- changed but highly promising – “players can’t just put their hand up when they fancy a game anymore” – Scotland side.
After attending Heaton Manor School, the opportunity to study in a city dominated by rugby league was one of the main factors behind Matthews’ decision to move to Hull.
“It’s the first city that I’ve been to where rugby league is on an equal, if not bigger, footing than football,” he added.
And he has been further boosted in his hope of a “dream” first-team future at the KC Stadium by Hull FC director of rugby and former Gateshead Thunder coach Sean McRae’s insistence that playing for Scotland is an “outstanding achievement” and a “stepping stone”.
Matthews is now preparing to impress McRae, and new Hull FC head coach Peter Gentle, further when training resumes at Hull in the build-up to the 2012 Super League season.
And while junior community rugby league programmes in the North East are booming, Matthews acknowledges that he feels something of a foreigner, having grown up in a traditionally rugby union-minded region.
Matthews will link up with the Scotland side again next week in preparation for their game against France on October 29. 
