There Isn’t Any place for centres Huw Jones and Rory Hutchinson, although stuart McInally will captain Scotland in the Rugby World Cup.
McInally has been chosen before John Barclay and past captains Greig Laidlaw to lead out the team at Yokohama on September 22 to their opener with Ireland.
But the significant news surrounds head coach Gregor Townsend’s decision to depart both Glasgow centre Jones and his rival type Northampton Hutchinson out of this squad.
Jones burst onto the Test scene with nine attempts in his first 14 looks for the Dark Lady but at the 18 months because he scored a stunning double from the 2018 Calcutta Cup win over England, his form for club and country has fallen .
His deficiencies in defence also have counted him out of contention, while a deficiency of expertise seems to have contributed to the decision to leave Hutchinson behind regardless of the 23-year-old making a late bid for selection with a brace in his first Scotland start during Saturday’s triumph in Georgia.
Together with Sam Johnson and Saracens centre Duncan Taylor of Warriors the top duo to start from the midfield, Townsend has chosen to shoot Peter Horne – that can fill in 10 – and Chris Harris as cover.
Adam Hastings has also been given the nod to star man Finn Russell in stand-off even though his ropy revealing in Nice against France .
But prop Jamie Bhatti has paid the cost because of his failure to impress during the five-try mauling imposed upon his side at the Allianz Riviera, together with Townsend choosing to take looseheads Allan Dell and Gordon Reid and also the set of Willem Nel and Zander Fagerson.
Simon Berghan also gets a seat on the airplane according to his capacity to pay each side of the scrum.
Forwards Josh Strauss, Matt Fagerson along with Magnus Bradbury miss out with Scarlets No 8 Blade Thomson selected on the foundation he can slot to the next row if needed.
Lock Bradbury hasn’t featured whatsoever throughout the Scots’ three warm-up clashes so far due to a rib injury as well as his lack of action has cost him his place, though fellow second-rower Jonny Gray and hooker Fraser Brown have both made the cut despite having also sat out the double header together with France and last weekend Tbilisi victory through injury.
New skipper McInally, talking as he along with the rest of the group were unveiled at Linlithgow Palace, explained:”it is a really proud moment. I ended up missing the World Cup through injury so this makes it all the sweeter.
“The attention is firmly on Georgia that Friday and putting in a great performance until we head off.
“I am very fortunate that there’s quite a few players either side of me that have captained the group before so I will not be brief in that respect.
“We’re just going to take each sport that comes and try and acquire all of them. If we are able to get out of this group, it’s knock-out rugby after that.”
Forwards: John Barclay (Edinburgh), Simon Berghan (Edinburgh), Fraser Brown (Glasgow Warriors), Scott Cummings (Glasgow Warriors), Allan Dell (London Irish), Zander Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors), Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh), Jonny Gray (Glasgow Warriors), Stuart McInally (capt) (Edinburgh), WP Nel (Edinburgh), Gordon Reid (Ayrshire Bulls), Jamie Ritchie (Edinburgh), Blade Thomson (Scarlets), Ben Toolis (Edinburgh), George Turner (Glasgow Warriors), Hamish Watson (Edinburgh), Ryan Wilson (Glasgow Warriors).
Backs: Darcy Graham (Edinburgh), Chris Harris (Gloucester), Adam Hastings (Glasgow Warriors), Stuart Hogg (Exeter Chiefs), George Horne (Glasgow Warriors), Peter Horne (Glasgow Warriors), Sam Johnson (Glasgow Warriors), Blair Kinghorn (Edinburgh), Greig Laidlaw (Clermont Auvergne), Sean Maitland (Saracens), Ali Price (Glasgow Warriors), Finn Russell (Racing 92), Tommy Seymour (Glasgow Warriors), Duncan Taylor (Saracens).
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