Three Borderers named in Scottish national rugby team’s match-day squad to play Portugal
All three Borderers in Scottish national rugby team head coach Gregor Townsend’s 40-plus-strong autumn test squad have been named in his match-day 23 to host Portugal this coming Saturday.
Right-winger Darcy Graham and his Edinburgh team-mate Patrick Harrison have been given starting places and Glasgow Warriors loosehead prop Rory Sutherland is among the replacements again, having come on as a susbstitute for the Scots’ 57-17 win against Fiji on Saturday, November 2, and 32-15 loss to South Africa on Sunday.
Hawick’s Graham, 27, and Sutherland, 32, are currently on 40 and 35 caps respectively and West Linton’s Harrison, 22, is on two.
Saturday’s game will only be Graham’s second in 13 months, having been ruled out of this year’s Six Nations and summer tour by injury, and it will be hooker Harrison’s first since the Scots’ 31-19 win in Uruguay in July and it will also be his first start.
Former Melrose loosehead prop Jamie Bhatti will also start against the Portuguese for his 35th cap.
Kick-off at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium is at 3.10pm.
Making up the rest of the hosts’ starting line-up, to be captained by Warriors inside-centre Stafford McDowall, are Tom Jordan, Rory Hutchinson, Arron Reed, Adam Hastings, George Horne, Will Hurd, Alex Craig, Alex Samuel, Luke Crosbie, Ben Muncaster and Josh Bayliss.
Joining Sutherland on the bench are Johnny Matthews, Elliot Millar Mills, Ewan Johnson, Freddy Douglas, Jamie Dobie, Matt Currie and Kyle Rowe.
Looking ahead to this weeken’s test, ex-Gala and Border Reivers player Townsend, 51, said: “Portugal showed enough in the last Rugby World Cup to prove that they’re not to be taken lightly at all.
“I thought they were one of the most exciting teams to watch in the world cup.
“They moved the ball wide, they were accurate, they were cohesive and they got some good results.
“Thet beat Fiji, drew with Georgia and pushed Wales really close, so we’re expecting that level of performance from them.
“They may not have played teams like Wales, Fiji and Australia since the world cup, but now they have a big opportunity this weekend to play a Six Nations team, so we expect that ambition, that accuracy and a really tough test match.”
Scotland and Portugal have only met twice before, in a qualifier for 1999’s world cup and at 2007’s world cup, with the Scots winning by 86-11 in 1998 and 56-10 nine years later.