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No Hogg or Russell as Scotland name their 40-man summer tour squad

By Liam Heagney
(Photo by Craig Williamson/SNS Group via Getty Images)

Scotland boss Gregor Townsend has included six uncapped players in a Grant Gilchrist-captained 40-man squad for the summer tour to South America following the omission of regular skipper Stuart Hogg and out-half Finn Russell. Another 2021 Lions pick, midfielder Chris Harris, has also been excluded.

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Hogg’s club season at Exeter ended with last Saturday’s win over Harlequins, Russell is currently battling injury with Racing 92 contesting the Top 14 playoffs while Harris played his final game of the Gloucester campaign in their win over Saracens.

While the exclusion of the trio will be attributed to them having toured until last August with the Lions, numerous others who made that trip last year are now set to travel with Scotland. It will also place a focus on the background situation prevailing in Scotland, who took disciplinary action against a half dozen players during the recent Guinness Six Nations.

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Long-serving Scotland skipper Hogg finished that tournament in Dublin on March 19 by addressing the previous weekend’s breach of team protocol which resulted in the full-back and five other players being disciplined for visiting a bar in Edinburgh without the permission of team management.

Russell, Ali Price, Darcy Graham, Sam Johnson, Sione Tuipulotu and Hogg all headed out on the town after they had arrived back in the Scottish capital following the round four Six Nations win over Italy. Whereas Hogg and Russell now miss out on the Scotland tour, the other four players involved in that incident will travel.

Scotland A take on Chile in Santiago on June 25 before Scotland play a three-Test series against Argentina on successive Saturdays from July 2 where they will be captained by Edinburgh’s Gilchrist for the first time since the 2018 summer tour fixture against Canada in Edmonton. Edinburgh’s Ben Muncaster, Glen Young, Matt Currie, along with London Irish’s Kyle Rowe and Glasgow Warriors’ duo Murphy Walker and Ollie Smith, are the uncapped players in the 40-strong group.

The squad also sees Glasgow forwards Scott Cummings, Rory Darge and Matt Fagerson make their return following spells of injury along with Worcester Warriors’ prop Rory Sutherland, fellow front-rower Jamie Bhatti and Exeter lock Jonny Gray who also missed the majority of the Six Nations.

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Edinburgh’s Hamish Watson has been selected and is on the cusp of reaching 50 caps for his country, just one appearance away from the milestone. Fellow British and Irish Lions players Price, Duhan van der Merwe and Zander Fagerson are also included.

Scotland 2022 summer tour squad
Forwards (22)
Ewan Ashman (Sale Sharks) – 2 caps
Jamie Bhatti (Glasgow Warriors) – 22 caps
Magnus Bradbury (Edinburgh Rugby) – 18 caps
Dave Cherry (Edinburgh Rugby) – 5 caps
Andy Christie (Saracens) – 1 cap
Luke Crosbie (Edinburgh Rugby) – 1 cap
Scott Cummings (Glasgow Warriors) – 21 caps
Rory Darge (Glasgow Warriors) – 4 caps
Matt Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors) – 21 caps
Zander Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors) – 47 caps
Grant Gilchrist (Captain) (Edinburgh Rugby) – 53 caps
Jonny Gray (Exeter Chiefs) – 67 caps
Jamie Hodgson (Edinburgh Rugby) – 5 caps
Ben Muncaster (Edinburgh Rugby) – uncapped
Pierre Schoeman (Edinburgh Rugby) – 9 caps
Javan Sebastian (Scarlets) – 1 cap
Sam Skinner (Exeter Chiefs) – 20 caps
Rory Sutherland (Worcester Warriors) – 18 caps
George Turner (Glasgow Warriors) – 25 caps
Murphy Walker (Glasgow Warriors) – uncapped
Hamish Watson (Edinburgh Rugby) – 49 caps
Glen Young (Edinburgh Rugby) – uncapped

Backs (18)
Mark Bennett (Edinburgh Rugby) – 24 caps
Matt Currie (Edinburgh Rugby) – uncapped
Darcy Graham (Edinburgh Rugby) – 27 caps
Adam Hastings (Gloucester Rugby) – 26 caps
George Horne (Glasgow Warriors) – 17 caps
Damian Hoyland (Edinburgh Rugby) – 4 caps
Rory Hutchinson (Northampton Saints) – 5 caps
Sam Johnson (Glasgow Warriors) – 24 caps
Huw Jones (Harlequins) – 31 caps
Blair Kinghorn (Edinburgh Rugby) – 31 caps
Rufus McLean (Glasgow Warriors) – 2 caps
Ali Price (Glasgow Warriors) – 51 caps
Kyle Rowe (London Irish) – uncapped
Ollie Smith (Glasgow Warriors) – uncapped
Ross Thompson (Glasgow Warriors) – 1 cap
Sione Tuipulotu (Glasgow Warriors) – 5 caps
Duhan van der Merwe (Worcester Warriors) – 16 caps
Ben White (London Irish) – 4 caps

Summer Tour 2022 fixtures
Chile v Scotland A | Saturday 25 June 2022, kick-off 9pm (UK time) – Estadio Santa Laura Universidad SEK, Santiago, live on Premier Sports
Argentina v Scotland | Saturday 2 July 2022, kick-off 8.10pm (UK time) – Estadio 23 de Agosto, Jujuy, live on Sky Sports
Argentina v Scotland | Saturday 9 July 2022, kick-off 8.10pm (UK time) – Estadio Padre Ernesto Martearena, Salta, live on Sky Sports
Argentina v Scotland | Saturday 16 July 2022, kick-off 8.10pm (UK time) – The Estadio Único Madre de Ciudades, Santiago Del Estero, live on Sky Sports

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Jon 8 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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john 11 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

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