Three ex-Hawick players to start for Scotland rugby team against Ireland at weekend

Darcy Graham and Rory Sutherland return to the Scots’ starting line-up for their concluding Autumn Nations Cup game this Saturday, December 12, kicking off in Dublin at 2.15pm and being broadcast live on Amazon Prime Video.

Hogg, 28, will be making his his 80th international appearance, making him Scotland’s seventh most capped player ever, immediately behind current head coach Gregor Townsend in sixth place with 82 caps between 1993 and 2003 and assistant coach Mike Blair in fifth place with 85 caps between 2002 and 2012.

The Exeter Chiefs star still has a way to go, though, to match the record 110 caps amassed by Kelso’s Ross Ford between 2004 and last year.

Graham, 23, set to make his 15th appearance for Scotland, and Sutherland, 26, back after injury to claim his 11th cap, are among six changes to the team beaten 22-15 by France on Sunday, November 22, in Edinburgh.

Edinburgh stand-off Jaco van de Walt is making his Scotland debut in Saturday’s third-place play-off, and the rest of the line-up comprises Duncan Taylor, Chris Harris, Ali Price, Scott Cummings, Duhan van de Merwe, Fraser Brown, Jonny Gray, Matt Fagerson, Zander Fagerson, Jamie Ritchie and Blade Thomson.

Galashiels-born Townsend, 47, said: “We’ve been together for the past two months, and from a coaching perspective, it has been a real joy seeing the group come together and work so hard to improve both individually and collectively.

“We are looking forward to facing Ireland in what will be an opportunity to continue our progress away from home once again.

“We have been impressed with Jaco over the time he has trained with us and we’re excited to see him take the next step into international test match rugby.

“It will be a tough challenge over in Ireland, given the quality of our opposition and how they will be looking to end 2020 on a positive note.

“Being able to bring back Rory Sutherland after his recent injury is a real boost.”

Last month’s defeat to France was the first time the region had only one representative in the national team for over a year, the previous such occasion being Scotland’s 61-0 victory over Russia last October in the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan.

Graham was the only Borderer in that team that time round.

The upcoming Ireland game will be Teries Hogg, Graham and Sutherland’s third together following Scotland’s 28-17 Autumn Nations Cup defeat of Italy on Saturday, November 14, and their 14-10 Six Nations finale victory over Wales at the end of October.

That latter game was the first time Borderers had made up a fifth of a Scotland XV since Hogg and Graham lined up alongside Jedburgh’s Greig Laidlaw for Scotland’s 28-21 world cup defeat by Japan last October.

It was also the first time three Teries had turned out for Scotland since Tony Stanger, Derek Turnbull and Greig Oliver were in the side, also featuring Blainslie’s Doddie Weir, that beat Zimbabwe 51-12 at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium at the 1991 Rugby World Cup.