While Scotland finalise their preparations to take on Australia at Murrayfield tomorrow, the player who has been their brightest star for the past two seasons will make a rather more low-key return to action tonight.
Stuart Hogg, who has been missing for six weeks with a wrist injury, will line up again at full-back in the Glasgow Warriors side to face Newport Gwent Dragons in their RaboDirect PRO12 encounter at Scotstoun this evening. With Heineken Cup matches looming as well, it is a timely comeback for the 21-year-old, who should now have plenty of opportunities over the next two months to reclaim his Scotland place for the RBS 6 Nations Championship.
"I'm delighted to be back after a long road to recovery," he said. "The physios have done a great job getting me back to full fitness and I can't wait for kick-off. I had a tough pre-season and was in good shape ahead of the start of the season so it was disappointing to pick up an injury. However, I'm fighting fit and ready to go again.
"To miss out on Glasgow games and the Scotland Tests was really frustrating but I'm now fully focused on the upcoming games as there are a few tough ones on the horizon, especially the 1872 Cup games against Edinburgh. It'll be tough to break back in as Sean [Maitland] has been doing really well for Glasgow and Scotland."
While the Scotstoun crowd will no doubt welcome Hogg back into their fold, there may be just as much interest in the presence of Finn Russell, who will make his first competitive outing for the club on home soil. Russell, who has been playing for Ayr lately, made his PRO12 debut as a replacement fly-half in the Warriors' 36-20 victory over Zebre in Parma last season, slotting two conversions for good measure, but his second appearance for the club will be at inside centre.
In that role, Russell, who was one of two recipients of the Macphail scholarship to play club rugby in New Zealand earlier this year, will have the company in midfield of DTH Van der Merwe, making a rare appearance at outside centre rather than his customary wing berth. Niko Matawalu and Byron McGuigan will stalk the touchlines in Van der Merwe's absence. Matawalu's more customary scrum-half position is taken by Henry Pyrgos, a replacement for Scotland against Japan two weeks ago.
"We're delighted to welcome Stuart Hogg back from injury, especially with a number of players away on international duty," said Gregor Townsend, the Warriors coach. "It is also an opportunity for other members of the squad to put their hands up for selection over the coming weeks.
"Finn has been working really hard in training and deserves the opportunity. We received impressive reports about him during his four-month spell playing rugby in New Zealand over the summer and he's been a consistent performer for Ayr this season."
A win tonight would move Glasgow past Munster and back to the top of the PRO12 table. Munster, in turn, have a potentially tricky fixture away to Cardiff tomorrow. Ulster are also in the leading pack and will be strong favourites to beat Edinburgh at Ravenhill tonight in a match that brings Alan Solomons back to the club where he clinched the Celtic League title a decade ago.
Edinburgh improved their PRO12 station with back-to-back home wins against the two Italian sides in their last two games, but Solomons admitted that playing Ulster away is a far sterner test. "I'm certainly looking forward to going back to Ravenhill," said the South African coach. "I've got very fond memories of Ulster and haven't been there for a number of years, so I'm really looking forward to it.
"Away fixtures in the RaboDirect PRO12 are always tough and Ulster are a side that have been built over 10 or 12 years to become one of the top sides in Europe. They were in the PRO12 final last year, the Heineken Cup final the year before that and have ambitions to win these competitions. We are a side that is rebuilding and are at a different place at this point."
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