TOWNSEND CALLS UP ENGLAND YOUTH BAYLISS
Bath star switches from England
Uncapped Bath back-row forward Josh Bayliss has been called up to the Scotland squad ahead of the Six nations showdown with France in paris on Sunday.
Head coach Gregor Townsend has convinced the former england Under-20 international to give up his dreams of playing for the country of his birth to instead represent Scotland.
Bayliss, 23, who has played in every game for Bath this season, qualifies to wear the dark blue jersey through his aberdeen-born grandmother.
He has never been involved with england at senior level during eddie Jones’ time as head coach, but is still young enough to improve as a player and getting him to swap allegiances is good work from Townsend.
‘We welcome Josh into our squad as we look to build on our opening two games of the championship,’ said Townsend.
‘We have been following his performances with Bath and a combination of his form and a couple of injuries in our squad have given us the opportunity to involve him for the first time.’
Bayliss is joined by Glasgow Warriors’ 19-year-old scrum-half, Jamie dobie, who joins the national squad for the first time as a full member after previously being invited to train at the start of the Six nations campaign.
also returning to the Scotland squad are prop Jamie Bhatti, of Bath, Worcester Warriors back row cornell du preez and Glasgow Warriors’ second row Rob Harley and centre Sam Johnson.
australian-born Johnson, who has 15 caps for Scotland, was a regular starter under Townsend during last year’s tournament but was not selected in the original Six nations training group.
Fly-half adam Hastings, who returned to action for Glasgow Warriors against Ulster at the weekend after more than three months out after shoulder surgery, also goes straight back into the squad for the trip to paris.
Finn Russell will start at ten, so it will effectively be between Hastings and Jaco van der Walt to be his back-up on the bench.
centre cameron Redpath and back-row pair Gary Graham and Blade Thomson have all returned to their clubs as they continue to recover from their respective injuries.
Redpath made a sensational debut in Scotland’s historic victory over england at Twickenham in the opening game, but injury ruled him out of the defeat to Wales at BT Murrayfield in round two.
Scotland have also confirmed they will appeal the four-match ban given to prop Zander Fagerson that has ruled him out of the rest of the Six nations.
Fagerson was red-carded for a dangerous clear-out at the ruck after his shoulder connected with the head of Wales prop Wyn Jones in the 25-24 defeat to Wales.
Scotland head coach Townsend felt referee Matt carley had been too hasty in deciding to send off Fagerson, and had not looked at all the angles of the incident before making his mind up.
at the disciplinary hearing, Fagerson accepted he had committed an act of foul play but did not believe his actions warranted a red card.
The three-strong disciplinary panel disagreed and decided the offence was worth a red, with a mid-entry point of a six-weeks suspension. That was then reduced by two weeks to take into account mitigating factors such as his good disciplinary record up until that point.
What bothered Scotland team bosses was that Fagerson’s four-match punishment was a week longer than the one handed out to Ireland’s peter O’Mahony, who was red-carded for a similar offence in a match against Wales.
That extra week was due to Fagerson not accepting his offence warranted a red card but the SRU still believe he was unfairly treated and have appealed. Scotland squad to play France; Backs: Jamie Dobie, Darcy Graham, Chris Harris, Adam Hastings, Stuart Hogg (c), Sam Johnson, Huw Jones, James Lang, Sean Maitland, Ali Price, Finn Russell, Scott Steele, Duncan Taylor, Duhan van der Merwe, Jaco van der Walt. Forwards: Ewan Ashman, Josh Bayliss, Simon Berghan, Jamie Bhatti, David Cherry, Alex Craig, Scott Cummings, Cornell du Preez, Matt Fagerson, Grant Gilchrist, Jonny Gray, Richie Gray, Rob Harley, Oli Kebble, WP Nel, Darcy Rae, Jamie Ritchie, Grant Stewart, Rory Sutherland, George Turner, Hamish Watson.