Scotland select remarkable 48th and 49th set of siblings for USA Test
Scotland’s tradition of picking siblings is continuing with Glasgow Warriors duo Matt Fagerson (back-row) and George Horne (scrum-half) making their debuts alongside older brothers Zander and Pete in their Test match against the USA this weekend.
Remarkably they will be the 48th and 49th brothers to play for Scotland, and the 22nd and 23rd pair of brothers to play together in the same Test match.
It will be only the eighth time in close to 700 Scotland Tests when two sets of brothers have been on the field at the same time, joining the Evans and Lamont brothers (2010), Bulloch and Leslie brothers (2001), Milne and Hastings brothers (1990), and the Neilson and Orr brothers, who did so four times (1891-1892).
Head coach Gregor Townsend is retaining just three of the team which beat Canada 48-10 last Saturday for the match in Houston, Texas.
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Glasgow Warriors full-back Stuart Hogg will captain the side while lock Ben Toolis, wing Blair Kinghorn (both Edinburgh) and Sale Sharks wing Byron McGuigan are the three players to retain their places.
Five players will also make their first starts – Glasgow Warriors trio Jamie Bhatti (prop), George Turner (hooker) and Adam Hastings (stand-off), as well as Edinburgh lock Lewis Carmichael and back-row Luke Hamilton.
Scotland Head Coach, Gregor Townsend, said: “We always planned to play as much of the squad as possible on this tour, and we also deliberately picked more Edinburgh players in the first game because their season finished earlier.
“Now we welcome most of the Glasgow Warriors contingent into the team. On top of that there are seven players making their first starts for the country, which is really exciting, and we are looking forward to them going out and grabbing this opportunity.
“The USA have won their last six games and scored a lot of points in the process. They’ve beaten two teams that have already qualified for the Rugby World Cup – Uruguay and Russia – and put 60 points on both of them. They are definitely improving as a team and are playing with a lot of confidence.
“You can see in the way they attack and defend that they are well coached, added to which there are some exceptional individuals that offer running threats throughout their side, so this will be a real test for us on Saturday.”
Scotland team to play USA, BBVA Compass Stadium, Houston, Texas
Saturday 16 June, kick-off 8pm local time (Sunday 2am UK time)
15. Stuart Hogg CAPTAIN (Glasgow Warriors) – 60 caps
14. Blair Kinghorn (Edinburgh) – 3 caps
13. Nick Grigg (Glasgow Warriors) – 4 caps
12. Pete Horne VICE CAPTAIN (Glasgow Warriors) – 33 caps
11. Byron McGuigan (Sale Sharks) – 4 caps
10. Adam Hastings (Glasgow Warriors) – 1 cap
9. George Horne (Glasgow Warriors) – uncapped
1. Jamie Bhatti (Glasgow Warriors) – 9 caps
2. George Turner (Glasgow Warriors) – 3 caps
3. Zander Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors) – 16 caps
4. Lewis Carmichael (Edinburgh) – 1 cap
5. Ben Toolis (Edinburgh) – 10 caps
6. Tim Swinson VICE CAPTAIN (Glasgow Warriors) – 36 caps
7. Luke Hamilton (unattached) – 2 caps
8. Matt Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors) – uncapped
Substitutes
16. Fraser Brown (Glasgow Warriors) – 32 caps
17. Allan Dell (Edinburgh) – 11 caps
18. Murray McCallum (Edinburgh) – 2caps
19. Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh) – 23 caps
20. David Denton (Leicester Tigers) – 40 caps
21. Sam Hidalgo-Clyne (Scarlets) – 10 caps
22. Mark Bennett (Edinburgh) – 21 caps
23. Dougie Fife (Edinburgh) – 6 caps
Comments on RugbyPass
I am really looking forward to Leigh Halfpenny playing his first Super rugby game for the Crusaders Playing a long side his former Welsh and Scarlets team mate Johnny McNicoll.Johnny has been playing great, back in a Crusaders jersey.The attack has strengthened big time. Also looking forward to David Havili at 10. David is a class act, it also allows Dallas McLeod to remain at 12. A good thing.
1 Go to commentsIf he had stopped insisting on playing in the backrow, instead of wing, where everyone told him he should, he would have been a Bok years ago….
11 Go to comments‘Salads don’t win scrums’ 😂 I love that.
19 Go to commentsCan’t wait for the article that talks about misogyny in Ireland. Somehow.
16 Go to commentsI would like to see a rule change, when the attacking team is held up over the try line, by allowing the defensive team to restart a goal line drop out releases the pressure for the defensive team, but what if the attacking team had to restart a tap 5m out from the defensive team it gives the attacking team to apply more pressure, there are endless options for the attacking side and it will keep the fans in suspence.
2 Go to commentsLess modern South African males predictably triggered.
16 Go to commentsMy heart is with Quins, but the head is convinced Toulouse have too much. Ntamack is back, his timing and wisdom has been missed.
1 Go to commentsWow, what a starting line up for the Sharks) Tasty up front,kremer vs Tshituka or venter …fiery ,,Lavannini ,,will he knobble etzebeth? Biggest game for belleau?
1 Go to commentsIt was rubbish to watch, Blues weren’t even present. Did what they had to do, nothing more. Should be better next week against canes.
1 Go to commentsI’ve just noticed that this match has an all-French refereeing team. Surely a game like this ought to have a neutral ref? Although looking at the BBC preview of the Saints game, Raynal is also down as reffing that - so there may be some confusion about who is reffing what.
1 Go to commentsIf Havili can play anywhere in the back line, why not first 5. #10.
11 Go to commentsThe dressing room had already left for their summer break before they ran out in Dublin that year, and that’s on the coach. Franco Smith has undoubtedly made progress, particularly their maul, developing squad players and increasing squad depth. And against a very tight budget too. That said they were too lightweight last year and got found out against both Toulon and Munster in consecutive games. Better this season so far but they’ve developed something of a slow start habit occasionally, most notably losing at home to Northampton who played them at their own game. Play offs will ultimately show whether there has been tangible progress on last year, or not…!
2 Go to commentsAustralian Rugby has been a disaster, by not incorporating learning from previous successful campaigns. QLD Reds 2011 - Waratahs 2014. Players, coaches and administrators appoint there representatives for scheduled meetings, organisation’s agreement’s assessments and correspondence. This why a unified Rugby Union under one entity works. Every Rugby nation has taken that path. Was most difficult in the Northern hemisphere with over 100 years of club rugby before the game become professional. Took a lot of humility for those unions to eventually work together.
7 Go to commentsThough Wilson’s sacking was pretty brutal, it wasn’t just down to that Leinster game; Glasgow had a lot of 2nd half collapses that season, in the URC and Europe, and only just scraped into the playoffs. Franco Smith has definitely been an improvement, some players are delivering far more than they did under Wilson.
2 Go to commentsjesus - that front 5!
1 Go to commentsShould be an absolute cracker of a game! Will be great to see DuPont & Ntamack in tandem once again🔥
1 Go to commentsBest team ever…. To have played? These guys are still pressure chokers. Came nowhere when it counted. What a joke
84 Go to commentsMusk defends anonymous terrorism, fascism, threats against individuals and children etc etc But a Rugby club account….lock ‘em up!!!
2 Go to commentsActually the era defining moment came a few years earlier. February 2002 to be precise, when Michael D Higgins as finance minister at the time introduced his sports persons tax relief bill to the dial. As the politicians of the day stated “It seems to be another daft K Club frolic born in Kildare amongst the well-paid professional jockeys with whom the Minister plays golf” and that the scheme represented “a savage uncaring vision of Ireland and one that should be condemned”. The irfu and Leinster would be nowhere near the position they are in today without this key component of the finances.
5 Go to commentsIt is crystal clear that people who make such threats on line should be tried and imprisoned. Those with responsibility in social media companies who don’t facilitate this should be convicted. In real life, I have free speech to approach someone like Reinach and verbally threaten him. I am risking a conviction or a slap but I could do it. In the old days, If someone anonymously threatened someone by letter the police would ask and use evidence from the postal system. Unlike the Post, social media companies have complete instant and legal access to the content in social media. They make money from the data, billions. Yet, they turn a blind eye to terrorism, Nazi-ism and industrial levels of threats against individuals including their address and childrens schools being published online all from ananoymous accounts not real people. They claim free speech. Free speech for anonymous trolls/voilent thugs threatening people under false names? The fault is with the perps but also social media companies who think anonymous personas posting death threats constitutes free speech.
2 Go to comments