Three Borders players in Scottish women’s Six Nations squad

Chloe Rollie in action against Wales (archive picture by SNS/SRU Group/Paul Devlin)

The 24-year-old full back, from Jedburgh, is back in the international fold after missing Scotland’s friendly in Spain, along with Hawick players Lisa Thomson at centre and Lana Skeldon (hooker), both of whom played in last week’s 36-12 win in Almeria.

Another regular choice from the south-east of Scotland, scrum half Mhairi Grieve, of Selkirk, is unavailable because of work commitments.

The tournament begins for Scotland a week on Sunday (February 2) with a trip to Donnybrook to play Ireland.

The Scots have two games at home, against England on February 9 and France on March 7. Both are at Scotstoun Stadium and will be shown live on BBC Alba.

Their other fixtures are against Italy in Legnano on February 23 and against Wales in Cardiff on March 15.

Head coach Philip Doyle, who named a squad blending new caps and experienced players, said he was delighted Chloe was fit again, along with others who had returned from injury, including captain Rachel Malcolm and Sarah Law.

Doyle told Scottish Rugby’s website: “It is great to see some new players coming into the set-up. They can properly challenge for positions in the future and their inclusion is most importantly developing that depth in an important year.

“We are coming off the back of a hugely positive weekend in Spain, so the squad and the management are feeling in a good place for the start of this busy period.

“While we know this Six Nations will be challenging, we firmly believe we need to focus on increasing our performances and becoming a properly competitive team within this competition. In order to develop our performances ahead of the World Cup qualifiers, our priority is closing the gap on the stronger nations like England and France.

“Results have not been good enough in previous seasons, so now is the time to improve our performances after a positive start to the season.

“I have been focusing on pushing myself, players, staff and Scottish Rugby to improve and everyone is very much working towards the same shared goal right now.”