A GRANDSON of the Queen will win his first Scotland rugby cap next month. Peter Phillips makes his debut for the national schools side against France at Goldenacre, Edinburgh, on December 22.
The 18-year-old son of the Princess Royal was expected to be kept on the sidelines for months before the big call-up. However, the selectors gave him the nod yesterday after an injury to his Gordonstoun team-mate, Fergie Gladstone, also 18.
The great-great-grandson of the late Prime Minister has a ruptured cruciate knee ligament.
Phillips, who plays blind-side flanker, showed up well in the international schoolboys' trial at Murrayfield but had to be content with a place on the reserve bench for the match against Scotland Under-18s a fortnight ago.
He qualifies to play for Scotland because he has been resident at the Highland boarding school for more than three years.
He could still opt to play for England in the future, because he and his parents were born there.
However, as his mother is patron of the Scottish Rugby Union, he is not expected to change his allegiance. The Princess Royal attends virtually every Scotland international.
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