Writer is awfully rude about Rugby's first students (7)
I believe the answer is:
durrell
'writer' is the definition.
(lawrence durrell)
'awfully rude about rugby's first students' is the wordplay.
'awfully' is an anagram indicator.
'about' indicates putting letters inside.
'first' suggests taking the first letters.
'students' becomes 'll'.
The first letter of 'rugby' is 'r'.
'rude' anagrammed gives 'dure'.
'dure' going around 'r' is 'durre'.
'durre'+'ll'='DURRELL'
'is' is the link.
(Other definitions for durrell that I've seen before include "Lawrence -, English writer (Alexandria Quartet)" , "Gerald - - , naturalist and writer" , "one or two authors" , "Lawrence --, novelist (Alexandria Quartet)" .)