After struggling through almost an hour of the match in Lautoka on Saturday only a few hours after being laid up with a stomach bug, John Barclay is on his way home to make sure he has no excuses for not turning up at the church on time.

Barclay appeared to be cutting it fine when he arranged his wedding for just a few days after the Scotland team are due to return from their southern hemisphere tour, but it appears he had organised the event with the co-operation of the Scotland team management.

"John Barclay is going home," Andy Robinson, the head coach, announced yesterday. "He has his wedding a week on Saturday and we have always said that we were prepared to release him after two games.

"There are two reasons for this, one is the difficulty of travel from Samoa [where the team are now] and the other is the risk of injury."

Richie Vernon is likely to take Barclay's place in the back-row and that could be the only change to the Scotland line-up for the match against Samoa on Saturday when the squad is announced tomorrow evening, though Robinson admitted they are still waiting to see how quickly Euan Murray recovers from a twisted knee problem.