Scotland will go into the A International against England at Newcastle on Friday night without Paul Johnstone, their outstanding loosehead prop, but the side will be strengthened by the return of Doddie Weir after his Tetley Cup victory, and the presence of senior cap Jason White.
Johnstone, who represented Zimbabwe at senior level before opting for Scotland, was said to have cited ''personal reasons'' for his non-availability.
Last summer, Johnstone made himself unavailable for the
Scotland tour to New Zealand because of worries over the worsening situation in Zimbabwe, where his family farm.
Team manager Rob Flockhart declined to go into detail but added that his absence is ''very disappointing''.
The upside, as coach Graham Hogg pointed out, is that Allan Jacobsen will come into the side. ''He needs to be playing at this level,'' added Hogg.
The knock-on effect is that Willie Anderson, the erstwhile Caley Reds player, now back playing with Kirkcaldy, has been drafted into the squad. Anderson shared in the Scots' grand slam at A level three seasons ago and despite no longer playing in the professional game, he is still highly regarded by the A team management.
''He's a player who's been there before at this level. From our point of view, we need a player who can scrum. Willie can certainly do that,'' said Hogg.
The return of Weir will be important, not least because the former Melrose lock will be playing at his current home ground, Kingston Park, but more important for the A squad is the presence Weir brings.
''Doddie was a very important part of our preparation for the France game,'' said Hogg.
Weir's inclusion means that Steve Griffiths will be back on the bench. It is hard luck on the Caley Reds lock, who had a very good game against Wales A.
The Scotland A management will finalise their team tomorrow but the expectation that the changes will be minimal, with Weir coming in for Griffiths and White being slotted in as blindside flanker, with Donnie Mackinnon moving to No.8.
Meanwhile, there are a number of changes in the Scotland Under-21 team for the match against England in Warwickshire. In the backs, Andy Henderson returns at centre after missing the Wales game because of concussion, with the consequential effect that Simon Webster moves from centre to wing, and David Frame from wing to full back.
The other change in the backs is at scrum half, where Calum Cusiter moves ahead of David Irving, the latter seems to be paying the price for playing outwith the Premiership. ''There is very little to chooses between them,'' said team manager Roy Laidlaw.
He added: ''Calum is playing at Premiership One level and is sharper.''
There are a number of changes in the forwards, two of them in the front row where Euan Murray comes in at the expense of Eric Milligan, while Bruce Douglas switches to the other side of the scrum. Squads:
Scotland A - Backs: G Burns (Edinburgh Reivers), I Fairley (Edinburgh Reivers), S Longstaff (Glasgow Caledonians), J Mayer (Bristol). G Metcalfe (Glasgow Caledonians), D Officer (Edinburgh Reivers), G Ross (Edinburgh Reivers), G Shiel (Edinburgh Reivers), J Steel (Glasgow Caledonians), K Utterson (Edinburgh Reivers). Forwards: W Anderson (Kirkcaldy), I Fullarton (Edinburgh Reivers), S Griffiths (Glasgow Caledonians), A Jacobsen (Edinburgh Reivers), D Mackinnon (Edinburgh Reivers), A Mower (Newcastle Falcons), R Reid (Glasgow Caledonians), P Robertson (Edinburgh Reivers), G Scott (Glasgow Caledonians), B Stewart (Edinburgh Reivers), D Weir (Newcastle Falcons) captain, J White (Glasgow Caledonians).
Scotland Under21 - D Frame (Hillhead/Jordanhill); S Webster (Northampton Saints), S Cranston (Hawick), A Henderson (Glasgow Caledonians), R Couper (Boroughmuir); N Stenhouse (Hawick), C Cusiter (Boroughmuir); E Murray (Glasgow Southern), D Hall (Hillhead/Jordanhill) captain, B Douglas (Heriot's FP), C Stewart (Glasgow Caledonians), A Kellock (Stirling County), N McKenzie (Glasgow Hawks), A Davidson (Boroughmuir), A Rennick (Northampton Saints). Replacements A Moffat (Stirling County), C Whittaker (Dundee HSFP), R Barrie (Heriot's FP), O Brown (Boroughmuir), D Irving (Langholm), C MacRae (Melrose), R Cook (Newcastle Falcons).
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article