Fifteen Glasgow and Edinburgh PRO12 players have been named in the Scotland squad to face England in the RBS 6 Nations Championship Calcutta Cup clash at Murrayfield on Saturday.

 

In a media release issued today Scotland have named one new cap and two other players are making their first start.

Lee Jones  the 23-year-old Edinburgh Rugby wing, is the debutant with his club colleagues, back-row forwards David Denton and Ross Rennie, starting in the competition for the first time.

The trio are joined by experienced and battle hardened campaigners – six players in the squad have won more than 50 caps – as Scotland strive to win their opening match in the Championship for the first time since 2006.

In all, head coach Andy Robinson has made eight changes in personnel from the starting XV in Scotland’s last match – the narrow loss to England in the Rugby World Cup in Auckland back in October. Chris Paterson has retired and Joe Ansbro and Ruaridh Jackson are recovering from injury but the five other changes are down to selection.

 

Scotland team (sponsor RBS) to play England in the RBS 6 Nations Championship at Murrayfield on Saturday 4 February, kick-off 5pm)

15 Rory Lamont (Glasgow Warriors) 26 caps, 6 tries, 30 points
14 Lee Jones (Edinburgh Rugby) new cap
13 Nick De Luca (Edinburgh Rugby) 29 caps, 1 try, 5 points
12 Sean Lamont (Scarlets) 60 caps, 8 tries, 40 points
11 Max Evans (Castres) 24 caps, 3 tries, 15 points
10 Dan Parks (Cardiff Blues) 66 caps, 4 tries, 15 conversions, 53 penalties, 17 drop-goals, 260 points
9 Chris Cusiter (Glasgow Warriors) 55 caps, 3 tries, 15 points
1 Allan Jacobsen (Edinburgh Rugby) 60 caps
2 Ross Ford (Edinburgh Rugby) 53 caps, 2 tries, 10 points CAPTAIN
3 Euan Murray (Newcastle Falcons) 41 caps, 2 tries, 10 points
4 Richie Gray (Glasgow Warriors) 16 caps
5 Jim Hamilton (Gloucester) 34 caps, 1 try, 5 points
6 Alasdair Strokosch (Gloucester) 23 caps, 1 try, 5 points
7 Ross Rennie (Edinburgh Rugby) 11 caps
8 David Denton (Edinburgh Rugby) 1 cap

Substitutes
16 Scott Lawson (Gloucester) 29 caps, 2 tries, 10 points
17 Geoff Cross (Edinburgh Rugby) 8 caps
18 Alastair Kellock (Glasgow Warriors) 36 caps, 1 try, 5 points
19 John Barclay (Glasgow Warriors) 32 caps, 2 tries, 10 points
20 Mike Blair (Edinburgh Rugby) 75 caps, 7 tries, 35 points
21 Greig Laidlaw (Edinburgh Rugby) 2 caps
22 Graeme Morrison (Glasgow Warriors) 32 caps, 3 tries, 15 points

Referee: George Clancy (Ireland). Assistant referees: Romain Poite (France) and Leighton Hodges (Wales). TMO: Nigel Whitehouse (Wales)

 

mneTV are producing a number of live PRO12 matches for BBC ALBA in February and March. Keep in touch with us on Twitter, Facebook and the website for details on all the live fixtures.