Hawick’s Stuart Hogg nearing century of Scotland rugby caps after being named in starting XV to face Wales

Saturday gone’s 29-23 victory against England in London was the Borderer’s 97th international appearance, so this coming Saturday’s fixture at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium will put the Exeter Chiefs full-back within two games of being one of only four Scottish players ever to make it into triple figures for caps.

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 ex-Hawick player is also their leading try-scorer ever with 27 and he's one of seven Borderers among the Scots’ all-time top-ten try-scorers, 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’s the only representative of the region this weekend, Graham being ruled out by injury for now, but ex-Melrose loosehead prop Jamie Bhatti is named among Saturday’s replacements and Hawick’s Rory Sutherland and Cameron Redpath, son of Kelso’s Bryan Redpath, capped 60 times for Scotland between 1993 and 2003, feature in Townsend’s 40-strong squad for the championship.

Joining Hogg in the Scotland starting line-up announced this afternoon, with Jamie Ritchie as skipper, are Kyle Steyn, Huw Jones, Sione Tuipulotu, Duhan van der Merwe, Finn Russell, Ben White, Pierre Schoeman, George Turner, Zander Fagerson, Richie Gray, Grant Gilchrist, Luke Crosbie and Matt Fagerson.

Saturday’s Doddie Weir Cup game in the capital kicks off at 4.45pm and will be broadcast live on BBC1.

Hogg played for 66 minutes of Scotland’s third Calcutta Cup win in a row, with Bhatti, 29, coming off the bench at the same time for his 26th cap.

His withdrawal was only precautionary and nothing to worry about, though, according to ex-Gala and Border Reivers star Townsend.

“He would have rather stayed on but his heel was causing him bother in the second half and I wanted fresh legs on,” said the 49-year-old.

“He would have stayed on fine, and I thought he played really well.”

The Scots are now looking to make history by winning their opening two Six Nations fixtures for the first time ever, the last time they managed to start off a championship with back-to-back victories having been in its Five Nations days in 1996.

Captained by Hogg at the time, they followed up their last two opening-day wins against the English with losses to Wales, going on to end up fourth in the championship both times round, but his successor as skipper is determined not to let that particular bit of history repeat itself.

“It’s just the start,” said Dundee-born Ritchie, 26. “We’re delighted to win and retain the Calcutta Cup, but we’ve been in this position before and not backed it up.

“It was the first thing we spoke about in the huddle after the win. We all came together and said ‘look, we’ve been in this position before and we’ve not backed it up’ and that, for us, is the most important thing.

“A strong tournament for us is five good performances, so we will be looking for another one next week.”

Scotland’s tries against new England boss Steve Borthwick’s hosts were scored by Duhan van der Merwe at the double, Huw Jones and Ben White, with Finn Russell adding three conversions and a penalty.

Looking ahead to the rest of the championship, Townsend added: “It’s important we look forward to the challenge we face this week. These games come thick and fast.

“The important thing is how we improve because there are a lot of areas we do need to get better in, and with the challenge ahead of us, we’ll have to be better if we’re going to win.”