SEAN Maitland was yesterday called into the Scotland squad for the Six Nations Championship after Duhan van der Merwe and Kyle Rowe were unable to meet up for training because of illness.
Although the 33-year-old Saracens winger has not featured in the national team since last year’s Championship, he was a surprise omission from the squad of 39 announced by Gregor Townsend last week. The head coach had suggested after leaving Maitland and a couple of other senior players out of the Autumn Nations Series squad that they would be back for the Six Nations, which begins a week on Saturday with a game at BT Murrayfield against England.
Maitland can also slot in at full-back and would stand a reasonable chance of making it into the matchday 23 if Van der Merwe failed to be passed fit on time. For the time being at least, the Worcester winger is still expected to be in the starting line-up for the Calcutta Cup clash - although in a brief statement yesterday, Scottish Rugby gave no further details about Van der Merwe or Rowe other than to say that they “have not met up for training this week due to illness”.
London Irish winger Rowe, one of five uncapped players in the squad, has been in excellent form with his new club, which he joined from Edinburgh last summer. But even if he recovers in time to train next week, it remains probable that he will have to wait until later in the tournament to make his Test debut.
Bath forward Josh Bayliss also had to sit out training yesterday because of concussion. He made his debut against Australia in November then won his second cap against Japan a couple of weeks later.
Meanwhile, Edinburgh assistant coach Stevie Lawrie has declined to comment on speculation that Scotland squad member Magnus Bradbury is about to leave the club, other than to acknowledge that anyone playing as well as the forward has been doing recently is bound to attract attention from other quarters. “Maggie has been playing really well and we recognise that he will get attention from other clubs because of how he is playing,” Lawrie said.
“But I'm not at liberty to talk about players’ contractual situations. We understand that he is playing well and we can see why there is interest from elsewhere.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here