Borderer Stuart Hogg now two games off century of caps for Scotland

The former national captain had to go off 13 minutes into the weekend’s Doddie Weir Cup win, with Blair Kinghorn taking his place, but that 98th cap means he’s now edging closer to becoming one of only four Scottish players ever to make it into triple figures for international appearances.

The 30-year-old is currently Scotland’s fourth most capped player of all time, behind only Sean Lamont on 105, Gala’s Chris Paterson on 109 and Kelso’s Ross Ford on 110.

The Exeter Chiefs full-back is also their leading try-scorer ever with 27 and one of seven Borderers among the Scots’ all-time top ten, ahead of Hawick’s Tony Stanger on 24, Paterson on 22, Kelso’s Alan Tait and current national head coach Gregor Townsend on 17, Hawick’s Darcy Graham on 16 and Selkirk’s Iwan Tukalo on 15.

He was the only representative of the region to start at the weekend, Graham being ruled out by injury for now, but ex-Melrose loosehead prop Jamie Bhatti was named as a replacement and brought on with 64 minutes played for his 27th cap.

Hawick’s Rory Sutherland and Cameron Redpath, son of Kelso’s Bryan Redpath, capped 60 times for Scotland between 1993 and 2003, also feature in ex-Gala star Townsend’s 40-strong squad for the championship.

Hogg played for 66 minutes of Scotland’s third Calcutta Cup win in a row the Saturday before, with Bhatti, 29, coming off the bench at the same time.