Melrose’s Harri Morris one of three uncapped players named in squad for Scottish national rugby team’s autumn tests

The other new faces joining the Merseyside-born 24-year-old, a try-scorer for the Greenyards club on draft as they beat Glasgow Hawks 13-5 at home on Saturday, are his Edinburgh teammate Liam McConnell and Australian-born Alexander Masibaka, currently playing for French Pro D2 club Soyaux Angouleme XV Charente.

Hooker Morris and flanker McConnell, 21, both played in an emerging Scotland side beaten 24-7 at Edinburgh’s Hive Stadium in December by Italy’s under-23s and Masibaka, 24, featured as a replacement during Scotland’s 29-26 non-test win away to the Maori All Blacks in July in Whangarei in New Zealand.

Morris, signed up by Edinburgh four years ago after playing for Melrose and their Southern Knights Fosroc Super Series offshoot, is one of four fellow Borderers in head coach Gregor Townsend’s squad – to be captained by Glasgow Warriors centre Sione Tuipulotu – along with Hawick’s Darcy Graham and Rory Sutherland and West Linton’s Patrick Harrison.

Graham, 28, and Harrison, 23, are teammates of his at Edinburgh and Sutherland, with the capital city club from 2014 to 2021, has been at Warriors since summer last year.

Right-winger Graham, 28, is currently three caps short of the half-century mark, having made his international debut in 2018; loosehead prop Sutherland, 33, is on 43 since 2016; and hooker Harrison is on three since summer 2024.

Graham and Tuipulotu’s 16 fellow backs are Fergus Burke, Jamie Dobie, Adam Hastings, Rory Hutchinson, George Horne, Tom Jordan, Blair Kinghorn, Stafford McDowall, Kyle Rowe, Arron Reed, Finn Russell, Ollie Smith, Kyle Steyn, Ross Thompson, Duhan van der Merwe and Ben White.

Joining Morris, Sutherland, Harrison, McConnell, Masibaka and former Southern Knights flanker Rory Darge among 27 forwards are Ewan Ashman, Josh Bayliss, Magnus Bradbury, Gregor Brown, Scott Cummings, Jack Dempsey, Matt Fagerson and Zander Fagerson, Grant Gilchrist, Nathan McBeth, Elliot Millar Mills, Andy Onyeama-Christie, D’Arcy Rae, Dylan Richardson, Jamie Ritchie, Alex Samuel, Pierre Schoeman, Marshall Sykes, George Turner, Murphy Walker and Max Williamson.

The Scots begin their four autumn internationals at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium against the USA on Saturday, November 1, with kick-off at 5.40pm.

That’s followed by games against New Zealand seven days later, with kick-off at 3.10pm; Argentina on Sunday, November 16, at the same time; and Tonga on Sunday, November 23, at 1.40pm.

Announcing his selection, former Gala and Border Reivers back Townsend, 52, said: “We’ve had opportunities at times to bring younger players in, but it’s very competitive now in certain positions.

“There’s quality all the way through and some very good players have missed out, but that means that if we do get injuries, which will happen this season, we’ve got quality players who’ll step up.”

Explaining his first senior call-up for Morris, he added: “Every time he’s played, at any level, he’s brought aggression and physicality and he’s really worked hard on improving his set-piece over the last couple of seasons.

“We see him as having that test-match mentality and he’ll really add to our group.”