VERN Cotter explained yesterday that he had decided to omit Ryan Wilson from his Scotland squad for the Six Nations Championship even before the Glasgow forward was cited for an alleged offence in the game against Northampton at the weekend.
The national coach named a squad of 35, including Tim Swinson, who like his Warriors team-mate faces a disciplinary hearing in London today as a result of being cited after the Northampton game. But, while Swinson will be free to play against England a fortnight on Saturday if he is not banned for throwing a punch during his team’s Champions Cup defeat, Wilson will have to escape a lengthy sanction for his supposed offence - and thence persuade Cotter he is worth selecting.
The possible punishments for Swinson range from a two-week suspension right up to 52 weeks. Wilson, who has been charged with grabbing the testicles of Saints captain Lee Dickson, could face a 12-week ban if found guilty of a so-called low-end offence, although at the most serious end he could be suspended for anything from 24 to 208 weeks.
As well as explaining that Wilson had been omitted because of his lack of form, Cotter was keen to suggest that there was little in the supposed misdemeanour. “We made a decision with Ryan before he was cited,” the coach said. “We’ve been happy with the way he’s been improving, but we feel other players are playing better than he is at the moment.
“He’ll go through the hearing process. It seems to me he was just reaching for a pair of shorts, but there are other people who’ll make a decision.”
There are only two uncapped players in the squad, both props, Zander Fagerson of Glasgow and Rory Sutherland of Edinburgh. Mark Bennett is currently sidelined because of a shoulder injury, but Cotter believes he still has a chance of regaining fitness in time for the Calcutta Cup match. The centre’s Glasgow colleague, hooker Fraser Brown, is omitted because of his ankle injury but should be back playing in three or four weeks.
Scotland squad for the Six Nations Championship:
Forwards: Hookers: R Ford (Edinburgh), P MacArthur (Glasgow), S McInally (Edinburgh). Props: A Dickinson (Edinburgh), Z Fagerson (Glasgow), M Low (Exeter), WP Nel (Edinburgh), G Reid (Glasgow), R Sutherland (Edinburgh). Locks: J Gray (Glasgow), R Gray (Castres), T Swinson (Glasgow), B Toolis (Edinburgh) Back row: A Ashe (Glasgow), J Barclay (Scarlets), B Cowan (London Irish), D Denton (Bath), C Fusaro (Glasgow), J Hardie (Edinburgh), J Strauss (Glasgow).
Backs: Scrum-halves: S Hidalgo-Clyne (Edinburgh), G Laidlaw (Gloucester, captain). Stand-offs: F Russell, D Weir (both Glasgow). Centres: M Bennett, A Dunbar, P Horne (all Glasgow), M Scott (Edinburgh), D Taylor (Saracens). Wings: S Lamont (Glasgow), S Maitland (London Irish), T Seymour (Glasgow), T Visser (Harlequins). Full-backs: S Hogg (Glasgow), R Jackson (Wasps).
Training with the squad: G Gilchrist (lock, Edinburgh), H Pyrgos (scrum-half, Glasgow).
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 here