Borders rugby stars set to take combined caps tally for Scotland into three figures

Former Hawick players Stuart Hogg, Darcy Graham and Rory Sutherland – all involved in Scotland’s 14-10 Six Nations victory over Wales on Saturday, October 31 – retain their places in the 35-strong Scottish squad vying for the new Autumn Nations Cup.

Hogg, 28, now with Exeter Chiefs, continues as captain after picking up his 77th cap against Wales.

Graham, 23, is on his 13th cap, and his Edinburgh team-mate Sutherland, 26, has nine caps to his name so far.

That adds up to 99 caps between the three Teries, so Scotland’s cup games away to Italy on Saturday, November 14, and at home to France on Sunday, November 22, and Fiji on Saturday, November 28, should see them well into three figures, all being well.

Their Six Nations finale at Parc y Scarlets in Llanelli, rescheduled from March due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, saw a handful of landmark achievements notched up.

Besides being the Scots’ first win on Welsh soil since 2002, it was the first time they’d won three consecutive games in the tournament since 1996 and also the first time since then that they’d won back-to-back away games.

On top of that, it was the first time in almost a century that they’d come from behind against Wales to claim an away victory.

Hogg, forced to play at No 10 for the last 11 minutes of the game due to injuries to fly-halves Finn Russell and Adam Hastings, was the only one of the three Borderers in the starting line-up to see the game out as Graham went off on 66 minutes and Sutherland on 53.

Those injuries will keep Russell and Hastings out of Scotland’s remaining autumn internationals.

Hastings will require surgery for a shoulder injury and could be out for up to four months, and Russell is expected to take two months to recover from a groin injury.

Scrum-half Sam Hidalgo-Clyne is the only addition to head coach Gregor Townsend’s original selection at the beginning of October, but winger Sean Maitland also returns, having been unavailable against Wales.

Richie Gray, Rob Harley and Ratu Tagive have been released back to Glasgow Warriors.

Former Gala player Townsend said: “It’s obviously disappointing to lose two quality players like Finn and Adam, who had both been playing well.

“However, this provides an opportunity to other players to come into the team and lead our attack.

“The squad adapted well at the weekend to the enforced changes and we have belief in those in our squad that can step up to play at stand-off.”

The rest of the squad comprises Simon Berghan, Jamie Bhatti, Fraser Brown, Blair Cowan, Scott Cummings, Cornell du Preez, Matt Fagerson, Zander Fagerson, Jonny Gray, Nick Haining, Oli Kebble, Stuart McInally, Willem Nel, Jamie Ritchie, Sam Skinner, Blade Thomson, Ben Toolis, George Turner, Hamish Watson, Nick Grigg, Chris Harris, George Horne, Sam Johnson, Huw Jones, Blair Kinghorn, James Lang, Ali Price, Scott Steele, Duhan van der Merwe and Duncan Weir.