Alexander Masibaka

Alexander Masibaka was called into a Scotland squad in January 2025 while he was on loan in the French second division. The coaches there had been tracking him since 2021, and the call came when Josh Bayliss was injured. He had not started a Top 14 match.

A No 8 at Montpellier, 1.86m and 115kg, 25 years old since this month.

Born in Perth, he started at the Associates club in Swanbourne at the age of four and went through Western Australia state sides into the Western Force academy. Three countries could have taken him: Australia, where he was born, Fiji, where his father is from, and Scotland, through a mother born in Paisley. Australia got there first at schools level, and he started alongside Joseph Suaalii in an 18-14 win over New Zealand Schools at Hamilton in 2019.

His professional debut came for the Force in round eleven of the 2022 Super Rugby season, on for Kane Koteka at Perth Oval against the Blues with sixteen minutes to play. He got ten more minutes the following week against the Crusaders. That was the whole of his Australian career.

Montpellier signed him that August on a deal to 2025 and put him in the academy. The next summer he went to Soyaux Angouleme in Pro D2 on loan, then stayed a second year when the club extended it. Two full seasons in the second division made him a key man there and brought Scotland calling.

The club took him back at the end of that loan and extended him to 2028. He was in the squad beaten in the 2026 Top 14 final.

A ball-carrying back-rower who took the long way round: two substitute appearances in Super Rugby, two years in Pro D2, and a Test nation still waiting on him.