SEAN Maitland has been omitted from the Scotland squad to play France on Friday night after it emerged that the agreement between the national team and English clubs was for a limited number of players to be freed to play in Paris.
The Saracens player began Saturday’s win over Italy at full-back, and although captain Stuart Hogg is set to resume at 15 after stepping up to stand-off against the Italians, Maitland would normally present a strong case for inclusion on the wing or as a substitute. However, it is understood that the coaching team felt they had sufficient back-three cover to be able to afford to leave Maitland out of the squad of 29 named yesterday for the final Six Nations match of the year.
Jonny Gray has also been omitted, but in his case it is because of the shoulder injury which kept him out of the Italian Test. There are five England-based players in the 29: Gray’s Exeter team-mates Hogg and Sam Skinner, Chris Harris and Alex Craig of Gloucester, and Harlequins’ Scott Steele.
Jamie Bhatti, who came off the bench three days ago, is left out, as are other England-based players Ewan Ashman, James Lang, Cornell du Preez and Duncan Taylor. Damien Hoyland and Ally Miller of Edinburgh have also been excluded this week.
READ MORE: Glasgow Warriors sign Argentinian international Sebastian Cancelliere
Finn Russell returns after missing out on the Italy game through concussion, and he is expected to start in the No 10 jersey ahead of Adam Hastings, who has been recalled after making his return from a three-match ban for Glasgow on Sunday. Edinburgh stand-off Jaco van der Walt, a substitute in that game at Murrayfield, is also included. Hooker Fraser Brown, who scored a try for the Warriors on his first game back after being out for more than three months with a neck injury, has not made it.
Scotland squad
Forwards: S Berghan, D Cherry (both Edinburgh), A Craig (Gloucester), M Fagerson, Z Fagerson (both Glasgow), G Gilchrist, N Haining (both Edinburgh), R Harley, O Kebble (both Glasgow), W Nel, J Ritchie (both Edinburgh), S Skinner (Exeter), G Stewart (Glasgow), R Sutherland (Edinburgh), G Turner (Glasgow), H Watson (Edinburgh).
Backs: J Dobie (Glasgow), D Graham (Edinburgh), C Harris (Gloucester), A Hastings (Glasgow), S Hogg (Exeter), S Johnson, H Jones, R McLean (all Glasgow), D van der Merwe (Edinburgh), A Price (Glasgow), F Russell (Racing 92), S Steele (Harlequins), J Van der Walt (Edinburgh).
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