Hepburn eyes Scotland RWC 2027 spot after Edinburgh move: 'It'd be naive to think it's not a big carrot'

Alec Hepburn has identified the 2027 Rugby World Cup as the driving force behind his summer move to Edinburgh, with the 33-year-old loosehead believing that playing his club rugby in Scotland gives him the clearest path into Gregor Townsend’s plans.

The Australia-born prop won six caps for England under Eddie Jones in 2018 during a nine-year stint at Exeter, where he was part of the Chiefs side that claimed a domestic-European double in 2020. After a five-year international hiatus, Hepburn switched allegiances to Scotland in 2024 — qualifying through his Glaswegian father’s heritage — and came off the bench four times during that year’s Six Nations.

His Test opportunities have been limited since. A move to Scarlets last summer yielded only one further cap, a defeat in Fiji on Scotland’s 2025 summer tour, as Townsend has continued to favour Pierre Schoeman, Rory Sutherland and Nathan McBeth at loosehead. The switch to Edinburgh, Hepburn hopes, changes that calculus.

“It’s a big year up ahead,” he said. “I spoke about it with my family. I’m getting a little long in the tooth, but my thought was if I’m here, I give myself the best opportunity to hopefully put myself in a position to be selected. Being in Edinburgh, you’re literally right under the noses of a lot of eyes and I wanted to give it the best shot this year. People would be naïve to think that’s not a big carrot at the end of the season, but it means nothing if you don’t play well throughout the season.”

Hepburn revealed he had been approached by Glasgow two years ago before choosing to move to Wales instead, meaning his arrival in the Scottish capital this summer represents a second chance at a domestic base he once passed up.

Playing outside Scotland had practical consequences beyond geography. As an ‘exiled Scot’ at Exeter and then Scarlets, Hepburn was not always available for full Scotland camps or fallow-week Six Nations training, with no financial agreement in place to secure releases from English top-flight clubs during non-Test windows. He was called into Townsend’s training squad towards the end of the 2025 Six Nations, but believes regular proximity to his international teammates will strengthen his case.

“When I was playing at Scarlets or Exeter before that, you’re always far away,” he noted. “You often come in the week after because you’re not allowed in certain international weeks. Whether that impacts selection because you’re not going to be there for the beginning of camp, I don’t know — or maybe I just wasn’t good enough. But being here nonetheless hopefully removes any of those things.”

With RWC 2027 set to be staged in Australia — the country of Hepburn’s birth — the tournament carries a personal dimension that adds another layer to what is already a pivotal season for the veteran prop.