First Scotland rugby cap for Borderer Patrick Harrison as tourists beat Chile 52-11

Former Peebles player Harrison was among the replacements for head coach Gregor Townsend’s tourists as they won by 52-11 in Santiago at the weekend and was brought on for lock Alex Craig on 47 minutes, taking over from Dylan Richardson at hooker as part of a second-half reshuffle.

The 22-year-old, at United Rugby Championship side Edinburgh since 2020, was the only Borderer in the Scots’ match-day squad of 23, with Hawick’s Rory Sutherland dropping out after featuring as a 51st-minute replacement during the preceding Friday’s 42-7 win against the USA in Washington DC to earn his 32nd cap and Jedburgh’s Glen Young having been ruled out of the remainder of the tour by a chest injury sustained in training.

He was the only uncapped member of the Scots’ line-up at the Chilean national stadium, though six of Saturday’s starters had only made one prior international appearance.

He’s also only the third ex-Peebles player ever to get a Scotland call-up after Scott Nichol, capped once against Argentina in 1994, and Steve Ferguson, awarded a retrospective cap last year for a game versus Fiji in 1993.

Former Southern Knights openside flanker Rory Darge was also on the substitutes’ bench – along with Harrison’s Edinburgh team-mates Pierre Schoeman, Javan Sebastian and Matt Currie, plus Glasgow Warriors’ Max Williamson, Adam Hastings and Stafford McDowall – and the 24-year-old was brought on for Jamie Ritchie with just short of 20 minutes left to play for his 21st cap.

Warriors’ Sione Tuipulotu and Edinburgh’s Ritchie were co-captains at the weekend, with Kyle Rowe, Jamie Dobie, Kyle Steyn, Arron Reed, Ben Healy, Gus Warr, Nathan McBeth, Richardson, Will Hurd, Craig, Ewan Johnson, Gregor Brown and Josh Bayliss also starting.

Explaining fellow Borderer Harrison’s selection, former Gala stalwart Townsend, 51, said: “He’s been great. He really has been one of the standout performers in training.

“He’s had to wait for his opportunity but he’s got it now, and we’re keen for him just to focus on what got him here, which is accuracy around the set-piece, work-rate in defence, aggression and the skill and power that he brings in attack.

“He was a back originally, so we’ve seen in training his running lines and handling ability, but his number-one asset is his aggression.”

Further praising Harrison and his fellow replacements after Saturday’s game, the gaffer said: “This team only really came together on the Tuesday, so they started to gel the more the game went on, and that was pleasing in the second half, and I thought the bench did really well and really upped the pace when they came on.”

Scotland’s try-scorers in front of a crowd of 24,878 in Chile were full-back Rowe and right-winger Dobie at the double, No 8 Bayliss, replacement scrum-half Currie, Richardson and outside centre Steyn, with fly-half Healy and his replacement Hastings adding three conversions apiece.

Diego Escobar touched down their hosts’ only try, with Santiago Videla and Tomas Salas kicking a penalty each.

The Scots’ tour of the Americas concludes versus Uruguay in Montevideo this coming Saturday, with kick-off at 8pm, and Harrison’s likely to feature again as he’s one of only two hookers remaining in Townsend’s squad of 28 due to that game falling outwith the designated international window, leaving him with only Scottish-based players to select from, plus Oyonnax’s Ewan Johnson.

Tighthead prop Fin Richardson, ex-Knights scrum-half Ben Afshar and lock Rob Carmichael are new additions to his squad joining them as development players initially expected only to train rather than play but they’ll provide injury cover if required.

“Next week I think it’s going to be three tightheads, three looseheads, just two hookers and four second-rows, so they’re just one injury away from getting called up,” said Townsend.

Looking ahead to taking on the Uruguayans as his squad bid to make it four wins out of four this tour, following an opening 73-12 victory in Canada on Saturday, July 6, he added: “It will be a massive game for them.

“They’ve played France and Argentina now, and although they lost those games, they’ve had two test matches against teams in the top ten in the world and they’ve got another one on Saturday against us.

“I think that was always going to be the toughest game.

“We’ll obviously have to play them with our home-based players, but we have a strong group here – some experienced players, some players that are in single figures in caps – and we believe we’ll have a strong team to finish the tour on a high.”