{"id":198610,"date":"2025-06-20T01:33:26","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T01:33:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/198610\/"},"modified":"2025-06-20T01:33:26","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T01:33:26","slug":"shamed-rufus-mclean-called-up-by-usa-and-could-face-scotland-at-murrayfield-later-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/198610\/","title":{"rendered":"Shamed Rufus McLean called up by USA&#8230; and could face Scotland at Murrayfield later this year"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul class=\"mol-bullets-with-font\">\n<li class=\"class\"><strong>Former Scotland international rugby player had subjected his former partner to a two-year campaign of domestic abuse<\/strong><\/li>\n<li class=\"class\"><strong>He was was sacked by Scottish Rugby for \u2018gross misconduct and breach of contract\u2019 after pleading guilty<\/strong><\/li>\n<li class=\"class\"><strong>But now he could return to the international game with the USA after being called up for their summer fixtures, which includes a match against England<\/strong><\/li>\n<li class=\"class\"><strong>The Eagles are then due to take on Scotland in the Autumn Tests&#8230; meaning McLean could run out at Murrayfield once again<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"author-section byline-plain\">By GRAEME MACPHERSON <\/p>\n<p class=\"byline-section\"> Published:  14:34 EDT, 19 June 2025   |  Updated:  15:13 EDT, 19 June 2025   <\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Shamed former Scotland star Rufus McLean is set to make a controversial return to international rugby with the USA &#8211; and could potentially face <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/scotland_rugby\/index.html\" id=\"mol-d5a30270-4d39-11f0-a5c1-6165360df99e\" rel=\"noopener\">Gregor Townsend<\/a>\u2019s side at Murrayfield this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">The ex-Glasgow Warriors winger looked set to become a regular fixture in the Scotland squad when he won three caps and scored twice on his debut against Tonga in 2021.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Then came the shocking revelation McLean had subjected his former partner Cara Haston to a two-year campaign of domestic abuse.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Handed a 120-hour community payback order by Sheriff Matthew Auchinloss and banned from contacting Haston for 10 years, the former Merchiston High pupil was sacked by Scottish Rugby for \u2018gross misconduct and breach of contract\u2019.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Now, having since moved to America, he is set to return to the international fold with the US after fulfilling World Rugby\u2019s regulation that states a player is eligible to switch nationalities after a three-year \u2018cooling off\u2019 period in which they haven\u2019t been capped.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">McLean\u2019s final Scotland appearance was on July 16, 2022.<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-ab82a42ffeaceeb4\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/99544769-14829751-image-a-106_1750357812064.jpg\" height=\"447\" width=\"634\" alt=\"Rufus McLean had played for Scotland and Glasgow Warriors but his career there ended after he pled guilty to domestic abuse\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">Rufus McLean had played for Scotland and Glasgow Warriors but his career there ended after he pled guilty to domestic abuse<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-5d3473f485ef8dd8\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/99544767-14829751-image-a-107_1750357815248.jpg\" height=\"996\" width=\"634\" alt=\"After he pled guilty in court, McLean eventually moved to the USA to continue his career\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">After he pled guilty in court, McLean eventually moved to the USA to continue his career<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-1c08b71055ea2f0f\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/99544757-14829751-image-a-108_1750357820128.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\" alt=\"Now McLean could play against Scotland for the USA in the Autumn Test series\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">Now McLean could play against Scotland for the USA in the Autumn Test series<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">He has been named in the USA Eagles\u2019 squad for their summer fixtures and could make his debut against England at Audi Field in Washington <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/washington-dc\/index.html\" id=\"mol-d59c72c0-4d39-11f0-a5c1-6165360df99e\" rel=\"noopener\">DC<\/a> on July 19.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">McLean could also line up against Scotland at Murrayfield later this year when the countries meet in the November Test series.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Boston-born McLean moved to the US last year when he was signed by the Colorado-based American Raptors before switching to the Houston SaberCats earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">USA Eagles head coach Scott Lawrence said: \u2018Generally across the outside backs, one of the things we wanted to do was increase the team speed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">\u2018So when you look at a guy who runs 10.4 metres per second, and who has played at a high level of rugby, you go: \u201cYeah, that\u2019s a guy that helps us achieve that\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">\u2018It\u2019s good to have him (McLean) in the mix this year. I think that\u2019s a huge one.\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">McLean engaged in a campaign of \u2018aggressive\u2019 and \u2018controlling\u2019 domestic abuse against his former partner.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">He admitted in court he had regularly sworn at her and been verbally abusive towards her, pushed her to her injury, tracked her movements via her phone\u2019s location service, requested passwords for her social media accounts and dictated what she could and couldn\u2019t wear.<\/p>\n<p>                    Share or comment on this article:<br \/>\n                        Shamed Rufus McLean called up by USA&#8230; and could face Scotland at Murrayfield later this year<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Scotland international rugby player had subjected his former partner to a two-year campaign of domestic abuse He&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[92,4204,4208,93,40817,49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-198610","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-rugbyunion","10":"tag-scotland-rugby","11":"tag-sport","12":"tag-tonga","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114713120347428714","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}