John Hardie has won a recall to the Scotland Guinness Six Nations squad and there are seven uncapped players among Gregor Townsend’s 39 named at Murrayfield today.
Hardie, who won 16 caps after being first picked by Vern Cotter in 2015, was left out of the 2017 Autumn Tests after a disciplinary breach that saw him banned from all rugby for a number of weeks by the SRU.
He returned to action and to the Scotland training squad for last year’s Six Nations but did not play, then left Edinburgh at the end of last season and only joined Newcastle Falcons at the end of November.
There are seven uncapped players in Townsend’s squad, and 19 players are named unavailable through injury, although some may come into the reckoning as the championship progresses.
Three of the uncapped players are hookers in Jake Kerr – who plays for Leicester – David Cherry and Grant Stewart. Newcastle’s Gary Graham, Sam Johnston of Glasgow and Warriors prop D’Arcy Rae were all involved in the autumn tests squad but didn’t play, while Edinburgh centre Chris Dean is a new inclusion.
FORWARDS – Alex Allan (Glasgow Warriors), Adam Ashe (Glasgow Warriors), Simon Berghan (Edinburgh), Jamie Bhatti (Glasgow Warriors), David Cherry (Edinburgh), Allan Dell (Edinburgh),
Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh), Gary Graham (Newcastle Falcons), Jonny Gray (Glasgow Warriors), John Hardie (Newcastle Falcons), Jake Kerr (Leicester Tigers), Stuart McInally (Edinburgh), Willem Nel (Edinburgh), D’Arcy Rae (Glasgow Warriors), Jamie Ritchie (Edinburgh), Sam Skinner (Exeter Chiefs) , Grant Stewart (Glasgow Warriors), Josh Strauss (Sale Sharks), Tim Swinson (Glasgow Warriors) , Ben Toolis (Edinburgh), Hamish Watson (Edinburgh), Ryan Wilson (Glasgow Warriors).
BACKS – Chris Dean (Edinburgh), Darcy Graham (Edinburgh), Nick Grigg (Glasgow Warriors),
Sam Johnson (Glasgow Warriors), Chris Harris (Newcastle Falcons), Adam Hastings (Glasgow Warriors), Stuart Hogg (Glasgow Warriors), George Horne (Glasgow Warriors), Pete Horne (Glasgow Warriors), Huw Jones (Glasgow Warriors), Lee Jones (Glasgow Warriors), Blair Kinghorn (Edinburgh) , Greig Laidlaw (capt, Clermont Auvergne), Sean Maitland (Saracens), Ali Price (Glasgow Warriors), Finn Russell (Racing 92), Tommy Seymour (Glasgow Warriors).
Unavailable through injury: John Barclay (Edinburgh), Mark Bennett (Edinburgh), Magnus Bradbury (Edinburgh), Fraser Brown (Glasgow Warriors), Lewis Carmichael (Edinburgh), David Denton (Leicester Tigers), Cornell Du Preez (Worcester Warriors), Zander Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors), Matt Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors), Richie Gray (Toulouse), Luke Hamilton (Edinburgh), Damien Hoyland (Edinburgh), Byron McGuigan (Sale Sharks), Matt Scott (Edinburgh), Rory Sutherland (Edinburgh), Duncan Taylor (Saracens), Blade Thomson (Scarlets), George Turner (Glasgow Warriors), Jon Welsh (Newcastle Falcons).
