Scotland prop Alec Hepburn hopes to move in the summer Edinburgh may bring him to the forefront of Gregor Townsend’s plans as this year’s battle for the 2027 World Cup begins in earnest this weekend.
The Australian-born loosehead previously won six caps for England under Eddie Jones in 2018 amid a productive nine-year stint at Exeter, where he helped Bosses up to two English titles, including a domestic-European double in 2020.
Hepburn qualified on the basis of residency after moving to the country as a 13-year-old, but after a five-year break following his last England cap, he used his Glaswegian father’s legacy to play for Scotland in 2024, winning four caps from the bench in that year’s Six Nations.
But since I joined Scarlets that summer, Hepburn played in just one more test – a defeat in Fiji on the 2025 summer tour – as Townsend preferred Pierre Schoeman, Rory Sutherland and Nathan McBeth as his first choices on the loose.
The 33-year-old may have already played rugby for his club in Scotland, revealing he was approached Glasgow two years ago, before I decided to move to Wales instead.
But to have replaced Carmarthenshire as the capital of Scotland over the summer, Hepburn believes he is ideally placed to seek further international recognition over the next 12 months before RWC27 kicks off in Australia.
“Well, it’s a big year ahead of us,” he admitted. “I talked to my family about it. I’m getting a little bit in the teeth, but I thought if I was here, I’d give myself the best chance to hopefully put myself in a position to get picked.”
“Being in Edinburgh, you’re literally under the nose of a lot of eyes and I wanted to give the best results this year. Who wouldn’t want that, you know? People would be naive to think that it’s not a big carrot at the end of the season, but it doesn’t mean anything if you don’t play well throughout the season.”
As one of the ‘exiled Scots’ who previously plied his trade in the English PREM and then in Wales, there were times when Hepburn was not always available for full camps or tours in Scotland, or for weeks in the Six Nations, without a financial agreement with the top clubs in England over releasing players in weeks without testing.
Not that playing outside of Scotland meant out of mind. Hepburn was called up to Townsend’s training squad towards the end of this year’s Six Nations but hopes playing alongside Scotland regulars will boost his cause.
“When I played at Scarlets or Exeter before that, you’re always a long way away,” he noted. “Often you come (to camp) the week after because you’re not allowed in certain international weeks. Whether that affects selection because you won’t be there at the start of camp, I don’t know – or maybe I just wasn’t good enough!
“But hopefully being here will take away all that stuff and allow me to play alongside a lot of Scotland players. Maybe they don’t get the chance to see me do it in other systems and other teams.”
“There’s strong enough competition with Suz (Sutherland), Schoemey (Schoeman) and Nathan (McBeth) but I’d love to be involved. People can see me day in and day out now, training and applying, instead of just 30 minutes or 50 minutes at the weekend and I guess those little words will come out of that. me a bit more.”
Hepburn’s ties to his adopted country extend to the national stadium itself. His great-great-uncle, Charles Hepburn, founded a whiskey blending company in Glasgow and, after selling his business in 1959, became a benefactor of the Scottish Rugby Union, helping to fund the original underfloor heating – then a revolutionary concept – at Murrayfield the same year.
While a painting in the stadium’s presidential suite marks that contribution, Hepburn has yet to taste her distant cousin’s famous “Red Hackle” whiskey.
“I still haven’t opened the bottle,” he said. “I suppose it might have been appropriate when I got the first cap to open it up, with all the fittings. But from the stories I’ve heard, it was like a paint stripper! But there’s a bit of family history here and it’s good to breathe the same air as once upon a time.”
Hepburn may have swapped stories with Pierre Schoeman – who has his own whiskey brand in partnership with teammate Duhan van der Merwe – as props the rivals were together last week in London ahead of Edinburgh’s final pre-season game at Harlequins.
Schoeman represents a huge barrier to Hepburn’s chances of nailing down the No. 1 shirt in big games for club and country, but with Lions Having come into the new season loose and missing Friday’s URC opener against Ulster, Hepburn will get his first crack at Belfast.
“I welcome competition and he certainly does – he’s a very competitive person,” Hepburn added. “But we want to help each other and get the best out of each other and we chat all week about different things.
“His competitive nature is brilliant because you have to really step up to the mark. But we are different players per se. He’s got some big strengths and I just want to play my game as well as I can, maybe move the ball a little bit more.
“I really like the new defense we’ve got that runs at line speed — things like that that fit my game. I never think it’s apples to apples. He’s great and we just play a little different game.”
While quality props traditionally mature later than other positions, Hepburn was shocked to discover upon his arrival in Edinburgh that he was the second-oldest player in the squad, with only veteran lock Grant Gilchrist, 36, longer in the tooth.
But with a host of established internationals and plenty of promising young talent blooded last season, the newcomer believes the ingredients are there for a vastly improved URC campaign after last season’s disheartening 12th– place to finish.
“Well, we’ve got the squad to really compete against anybody and the depth of the squad – that’s the thing I’ve noticed,” Hepburn added. “I knew a few guys, but when I came I thought, ‘Wow, I’ve never seen so many tall people,’ which is nice to see.
“I think it takes years to build the confidence or the inner belief that you know you can win. You can go into games and hope to win, but it just takes a little time to have the belief in yourself and the team and the belief within the team that you can win against anybody.”
“I’ve only played two games before the season but I know the lads are very confident in their abilities. We train hard and that helps develop that as well. Then I think it will just be a case of realizing it on the pitch.”
“It doesn’t take much (to become contenders). (At Exeter) we went from losing a couple of games under a goal one year to finishing mid-table to the top four the next year. Not much has changed, just a few little things, a couple of percent here and there, which makes a big difference, you know?”
