GREGOR TOWNSEND has named a 36-man training squad for Scotland's Autumn Nations Series.
The national team boss has selected the squad for the matches against Tonga, Australia, South Africa and Japan starting at the end of this month.
Townsend's squad features 19 players from the summer squad with 14 uncapped players also making the training squad.
The players will join up on Sunday 17 October and begin training the following day at the Oriam high Performance centre near Edinburgh.
On the squad announcement, head coach Townsend said: “It has been great to see both Edinburgh Rugby and Glasgow Warriors make positive starts to their URC campaigns driven by some standout performances from both young and established players.
“With four tough Test matches ahead of us in this year’s Autumn Nations Series it is important we bring players together early, connect with them as coaches and enable them to grow as a group before the campaign gets underway against Tonga at BT Murrayfield. We’ll then move on to the challenge of facing in-form Australia, World Champions South Africa and a very dangerous Japan team.
“We are pleased with the depth we are able to call upon to make up this training squad and it provides a genuine opportunity for players to put their hand up for selection to the full Autumn Nations Series squad.”
Forwards
Matt Fagerson, Nick Haining, Hamish Watson, Rory Darge, Dylan Richardson, Jamie Ritchie, Luke Crosbie, Grant Gilchrist, Jamie Hodgson, Rob Harley, Marshall Sykes, Zander Fagerson, Oli Kebble, Murray McCallum, George Turner, Fraser Brown, Stuart McInally, Pierre Schoeman, Jamie Bhatti.
Backs
Rufus McLean, Damien Hoyland, Darcy Graham, Cole Forbes, Sione Tuipulotu, Mark Bennett, Matt Currie, Sam Johnston, James Lang, Kyle Steyn, Jack Bain, Blair Kinghorn, Ross Thompson, Charlie Savala, Ali Price, George Horne, James Dobie.
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