STUART HOGG has been appointed as the new Scotland captain for the Guinness Six Nations, the Scottish Rugby Union has announced.
The Exeter full-back takes over from Stuart McInally, who led the team out during last year's disappointing World Cup campaign. With 71 caps, the two-time British and Irish Lion is the most experienced player in the 38-man squad named by Gregor Townsend for this year's championship, which start for Scotland with a trip to Dublin on February 1.
McInally was given the armband ahead of former skippers Greig Laidlaw and John Barclay as the team flew out to Japan. But the Edinburgh hooker had a disappointing tournament and was left out of the starting line-up as the Dark Blues saw their hopes of reaching the quarter-finals evaporate with defeat to the hosts in their final pool match.
READ MORE: SRU executives double their salary
Laidlaw and Barclay have since announced their retirements from international action and Townsend has now decided it is time for Hogg, one of only two genuinely world-class operators in his squad along with Finn Russell, to take over.
Townsend has also handed a recall to centres Matt Scott, Huw Jones and Rory Hutchinson after all three were left out of the squad that travelled to the Far East in the autumn - but Saracens' Duncan Taylor is a notable absentee.
There are also first call-ups for Gloucester lock Alex Craig, Glasgow wing Ratu Tagive, Warriors flanker Tom Gordon and Edinburgh number eight Nick Haining.
Explaining his captaincy call, Townsend said: "Stuart is very passionate about playing for Scotland and he's determined to do all he can to improve Scotland. He really cares about playing for his country, what the jersey represents and also getting the best out of his team-mates.
"He's a really intelligent rugby player who's is learning and improving with every season. He's very good at bringing others into the game and building relationships with those around him.
"He's very well respected by our coaching and playing group but that isn't based on the accolades he's earned. It's more about what he does every day at training."
READ MORE: Martin Hannan: Time to tie colours to the mast for good of the game
Townsend added: "He brings energy, is very accurate, he stays out to longer to work on his game and more often than not he's the loudest player on the field, guiding or congratulating his team-mates.
"He really wanted to take on the honour and responsibility of being captain, which was a huge positive and - having heard his plans for how he would work as a captain and work to bring the best out of others, while being able to focus on his own game - meant it became a relatively straightforward decision.
"We will have a strong group of leaders around him that can help but it's a new squad and a new era, and Stuart has an opportunity to help this group reach its potential."
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel