Sione Tuipulotu will captain Scotland through November’s Nations Championship fixtures, with Gregor Townsend naming a 37-man squad for the visits of New Zealand, Australia and Japan to Scottish Gas Murrayfield.
The Glasgow Warriors centre leads a familiar group that includes one uncapped player, Newcastle Red Bulls back-row Ollie Leatherbarrow, who qualifies through his Perth-born grandmother. Leatherbarrow has already represented Scotland at Under-16 and Under-20 level, having started his career at Exeter Chiefs before moving north in 2023.
Scotland face the All Blacks on 7 November, Australia on 15 November and Japan on 21 November, before the competition concludes with the Nations Championship Finals weekend at Twickenham on 28 and 29 November. The final fixtures will be determined by the relative standings of the northern and southern hemisphere sides across the summer and autumn matches.
Scotland currently sit second in the Northern Hemisphere table, sandwiched between France and England thanks to try bonus points in each fixture. If somehow they can re-harness the performance levels they managed for most of that Springbok game, Scotland should have enough to seriously challenge the All Blacks and Australia. The bit they need to fix is the second-half drop-off that allowed late tries for their summer opponents.
Forwards: Ewan Ashman, Josh Bayliss, Gregor Brown, Scott Cummings, Alex Craig, Rory Darge, Jack Dempsey, Matt Fagerson, Zander Fagerson, Jonny Gray, Gregor Hiddleston, Will Hurd, Ollie Leatherbarrow, Nathan McBeth, Liam McConnell, Elliot Millar Mills, Jamie Ritchie, Pierre Schoeman, Rory Sutherland, Seb Stephen, Max Williamson.
Backs: Fergus Burke, Jamie Dobie, Darcy Graham, George Horne, Rory Hutchinson, Huw Jones, Tom Jordan, Blair Kinghorn, Stafford McDowall, Kyle Rowe, Finn Russell, Ollie Smith, Kyle Steyn, Sione Tuipulotu (capt), Duhan van der Merwe, Ben White.
Players in (since June Squad):
- Ollie Leatherbarrow
- Jamie Ritchie
- Huw Jones
- Blair Kinghorn
- Will Hurd
- Alex Craig
Players out:
- Magnus Bradbury
- Freddy Douglas
- D’arcy Rae
- Alex Samuel
- Grant Gilchrist
1 response
Really strong squad with a few interesting selections.
Don’t feel like Edinburgh have been sufficiently rewarded for their strong start to the season. Maggie, Douglas, Blythe Lafferty and Hector Paterson can feel pretty hard done by. For me, Douglas should definitely have been in – his turnover skills are an incredible point of difference. On the other hand, Duhan is probably fortunate to be included, with Reid and Mackay snapping at his heels.
Keen to see what Leatherbarrow offers. Townsend says similar ball carrying to Dempsey, even though he’s pretty lightweight at test level.
Either way, we have world class options across the pitch and, probably, the most depth I’ve ever seen. Let’s get stuck into them!