A HOST of the county's most promising young rugby stars are to benefit from the BT Sport Regional Academy system.

North Berwick pair Rory Darge and Roan Frostwick, who represented Scotland U16 last season, have been named as stage one academy players by Scottish Rugby.

They are joined in the stage one/two academy players by Robbie McCallum, of Loretto School, and former Preston Lodge back-row Andrew Horne – the Scotland U18 cap who joined Hawick in the summer.

A trio of former North Berwick youngsters, Finn Hobbis (Stewart's Melville), Andrew Grant-Suttie (Stirling County) and Cammy Hutchison (Currie) are all included.

Completing the East Lothian representatives on the 91-strong list are lock Callum Hunter-Hill, from North Berwick, and former Musselburgh back-row Ally Miller.

Both Scotland U20 caps, Hunter-Hill is captain at Stirling County, while Miller is one of five players at London Scottish as part of the partnership agreement with Scottish Rugby.

Announcing the latest intake of players into the academy system, Stephen Gemmell, Scottish Rugby's head of academy and performance programmes, said: "It’s about future-proofing the game in Scotland.

"That’s what makes the academy vital. It’s about continually producing players that can go on and be influential in professional and senior international rugby in years to come by displaying a point of difference - be that physical, mental, technical or tactical - alongside their core rugby competencies.

"Obviously the here and now plays a part in selection, such as the individual’s skill set and match performances, but we also need to select players we think can play the game of tomorrow. "

Among the graduates of last year's programme is ex-North Berwick lock Lewis Carmichael, who signed professional terms with Edinburgh Rugby in the summer.