Borderer Rory Sutherland nearing quarter-century of starts for Scottish national rugby team after being named at No 1 v New Zealand

That will be the loosehead prop’s 24th starting XV selection for his country and his 52nd cap all together since making his international debut in 2016.

It will be his third start on the trot in five games for club and country so far this season, the others, both victories, by 33-17 and 24-20 respectively, being for Scotland against Fiji at Murrayfield in July and for Warriors away to Italy’s Benetton in October.

The 34-year-old is one of ten Glasgow Warriors in head coach Gregor Townsend’s starting XV, including captain Sione Tuipulotu at inside-centre, with another three of his Scotstoun Stadium teammates among their eight replacements.

Kick-off at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium is at 2.10pm and that Nations Championship fixture can be seen live on ITV.

Sutherland’s fellow forwards are Ewan Ashman, Zander and Matt Fagerson, Gregor Brown, Scott Cummings, Jack Dempsey and ex-Southern Knights flanker Rory Darge.

Joining Tuipulotu among this weekend’s backs are Kyle Rowe, Kyle Steyn, Huw Jones, Jamie Dobie, Finn Russell and Ben White.

On the bench are Gregor Hiddleston, Pierre Schoeman, Will Hurd, Max Williamson, Josh Bayliss, George Horne, Tom Jordan and Blair Kinghorn.

Scotland have played the All Blacks 33 times since 1905 and not won once, the closest they’ve got being two draws, with scorelines of 0-0 in 1964 and 25-25 in 1983, both at Murrayfield.

Former Scotland and Melrose draft back Peter Horne, currently an assistant coach with the national side, believes it’s only a matter of time until his country end their 121-year winless streak against their visitors, however, taking heart from how close-run a thing their most recent meeting was, a 25-17 defeat at Murrayfield last November.

“We expect New Zealand to put on a good performance, but we can look back and take a lot of confidence from last year as well,” said the 37-year-old.

“We’ve caused them a lot of problems. The guys showed last year that we can go toe to toe with the All Blacks and it’s only going to be a matter of time.

“There are definitely things in that game that we could have done a lot better and we missed chances, but we’re really excited about this weekend.

“You can start double or triple-guessing about what they’re going to do, but to be honest, it’s very much about focusing on us. If we focus on what we can do in our game, we know that we’re really difficult to stop.

“We have so much talent in our squad now.

“We know that if we get our stuff right, if we get our job right, then we’re a match for anyone.”

Sutherland’s fellow ex-Green Darcy Graham was passed over for selection, with Saturday’s No 14 jersey going to Steyn, despite having been declared fit this week after sustaining a calf strain during Edinburgh’s 27-17 loss at home to France’s Toulon on Friday, October 16, his first appearance for the capital city outfit since May, leading to him being dropped for their 31-10 win hosting South Africa’s Lions 31-10 at the capital’s Hive Stadium seven days later and their 31-12 defeat away to Benetton on Saturday as a precaution.

Explaining the 57-times-capped 29-year-old’s omission from his latest squad, former Gala back Townsend, 53, said: “Darcy had picked up another injury, so that’s why he wasn’t back playing for Edinburgh. It would have been great if he’d had another game.

“His calf had tightened up after the Lions game so he wasn’t able to play last weekend, but he’s trained fully this week, so he is available for selection, but last week he’d just been managed in training.”