Hogg to skipper Scots in Houston

Stuart Hogg will captain Scotland for the first time when they take on the USA in Houston on Saturday.

Head coach Gregor Townsend has named a revamped starting XV following last weekend’s 48-10 win over Canada – with seven players set to win their first caps.

Former Dundee High pupils Matt and Zander Fagerson have both been named in Townsend’s team, while the Perth pair are being joined by Fife siblings George and Peter Horne, who are starting at scrum-half and inside centre respectively.

The match will be only the eighth time in close to 700 Scotland Tests when two sets of brothers have been on the field at the same time.

Two pairs of local brothers have made it into the Scotland starting line-up that will face the USA this weekend.

Former Dundee High pupils Matt and Zander Fagerson have both been named in Gregor Townsend’s team which will play the Americans in Houston.

Matt will start at number eight and Zander at tighthead prop.

The Perth pair are being joined by Fife siblings George and Peter Horne, who are starting at scrum-half and inside centre respectively.

Both Matt Fagerson and George Horne are making their first appearances in the Scotland line-up.

Fullback Stuart Hogg will captain the side for the second game of the Scots’ summer tour.

The Fagerson and Horne siblings will become the 48th and 49th sets of brothers to play for Scotland, and the 22nd and 23rd to play together in the same Test match.

Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend said: “We always planned to play as much of the squad as possible on this tour, and we also deliberately picked more Edinburgh players in the first game because their season finished earlier.

“Now we welcome most of the Glasgow Warriors contingent into the team.

“On top of that there are seven players making their first starts for the country, which is really exciting, and we are looking forward to them going out and grabbing this opportunity.

“The USA have won their last six games and scored a lot of points in the process.

“They’ve beaten two teams that have already qualified for the Rugby World Cup – Uruguay and Russia – and put 60 points on both of them.

“They are definitely improving as a team and are playing with a lot of confidence.

“You can see in the way they attack and defend that they are well coached, added to which there are some exceptional individuals that offer running threats throughout their side, so this will be a real test for us on Saturday.”

● Joe Launchbury has been passed fit to start England’s second Test against South Africa after recovering from a calf problem.

Launchbury was ruled out of the series opener at Ellis Park with the injury sustained in training and faced a race against time to be ready for Saturday’s Bloemfontein showdown.