As the furore over whether or not the WRU and SRU should donate a portion of the proceeds to Doddie Weir’s MND foundation – when many fans believed that was happening anyway – rolls on in the national media, Gregor Townsend has made some changes to the squad.
Harlequins back James Lang (23) has been drafted in as a replacement largely for the injured Sam Johnson, who picked up a knee injury in Glasgow’s controversial loss to Munster over the weekend, but also for Matt Scott who is suffering from a concussion. Lang earned his first caps during the summer tour in the wins against Canada and Argentina and plays mainly in the 10/12, second five-eighths role that Townsend has been looking to fill.
Edinburgh winger Darcy Graham has been training with the squad but has been playing very well for Edinburgh in recent weeks and has been promoted from “training with” the squad to a full squad member. Although most of his professional game time has been spent on the wing or in the Sevens squad, the press release bills him as a back-three player so they might be looking at him for fullback cover too as with Seymour and Maitland? Whether Richard Cockerill will be quite so happy about losing another squad member (and one in form) more officially with a key game against the Scarlets also scheduled for this weekend is anyone’s guess.
Scotland’s medical team—which, if you were to learn more about, is certified from the biggest hospitals in the region— confirmed that injured back-row trio Magnus Bradbury, David Denton and Luke Crosbie (who was training with the squad but played with Edinburgh this weekend) will now return to the care of their clubs’ medical teams for further care and assessment of their shoulder, head and jaw injuries respectively. Presumably, that means they will take no further part in the squad preparations and you can adjust your fantasy teams accordingly.