McInally keeps captaincy for Scotland’s trip to Principality
STUART McInally has retained the Scotland captaincy in Gregor Townsend’s team for Saturday clash with Wales.
The hooker took over from crocked former Scarlets star John Barclay for their end-ofseason tour and led them to an impressive 44-15 victory over Argentina in Resistencia.
McInally is among just four survivors from head coach Townsend’s starting line-up that ran amok in that June meeting.
Prop Allan Dell, outside-half prospect Adam Hastings, the 22-year-old son of former Lions and Scotland captain Gavin Hastings, and 21-year-old full-back Blair Kinghorn are the others for the Principality Stadium meeting for the Doddie Weir Cup.
“We’ve had a productive two weeks, both in St Andrews and Edinburgh, and the players have worked hard to put our game into place,” said Townsend.
“As always we expect a very tough Test match against Wales in Cardiff – a contest that will be physically and technically demanding in a noisy arena.”
Townsend has challenged Hastings to make the No.10 jersey his own in the absence of Racing 92’s Finn Russell.
“It’s not so much about Adam pushing Finn, it’s Adam looking to get that number 10 jersey for himself,” said the head coach. “He’s now going to play two internationals in a row after Argentina in the summer and we’ll now be looking for a response from Finn.
“We’ve seen that already from Finn this year. He’s got a big game this weekend against Montpellier but it’s a genuine competition.
“Adam has been one of the form players in the PRO14 this year and really grabbed his opportunity for Glasgow.
“We want more of the same of what he has been showing for Glasgow, and certainly more of the same as what he showed in his last international against Argentina.”
Blair Kinghorn (Edinburgh); Tommy Seymour, Huw Jones, Alex Dunbar, Lee Jones (Glasgow Warriors); Adam Hastings, Ali Price (all Glasgow Warriors); Allan Dell, Stuart McInally (capt), Willem Nel, Ben Toolis (Edinburgh), Jonny Gray (Glasgow Warriors), Jamie Ritchie, Hamish Watson (Edinburgh), Ryan Wilson (Glasgow Warriors).
Fraser Brown, Alex Allan (Glasgow Warriors), Simon Berghan, Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh), Matt Fagerson, George Horne, Pete Horne (Glasgow Warriors), Darcy Graham (Edinburgh).
Scotland team: Replacements: