Barclay to captain injury-hit Scotland with Cotter forced into changes
Scotland have made five changes to their starting line-up for this weekend’s Six Nations visit of Wales to Murrayfield, with John Barclay taking on the captaincy as both teams looking to bounce back from defeats last time out.
With Greig Laidlaw ruled out of the rest of the Six Nations after sustaining ankle ligament damage in the 22-16 defeat by France in Paris, Vern Cotter hands the captaincy over to flanker Barclay, who is joined in
the back-row by Hamish Watson and John Hardie – the latter earning his first start of the campaign.
The change of captaincy is not the only decision Cotter has had to make this week, with No 8 Josh Strauss also ruled out of the remainder of the championship due to a kidney injury sustained in the same match.
Ali Price is unsurprisingly installed at scrum-half after deputising for the Gloucester captain when he was forced off injured during the first half in Paris, while Gordon Reid starts at loosehead prop in place of the benched Allan Dell to form an all-Glasgow front-row with Fraser Brown and Zander Fagerson.
The final change comes in the back three, where the injured Sean Maitland is replaced on the wing by Tim Visser. Henry Pyrgos is added to the replacements’ bench to cover for Price at scrum-half.
“John has played a vital role in our leadership group and has led by example throughout this and previous campaigns,” Cotter said.
“It was disappointing to lose Greig, however we continue to develop a system of shared leadership in this squad, which has supported this transition. It’ll be a proud moment for John and on which he thoroughly deserves.”
Scotland squad to face Wales:
Hogg; Visser, Jones, Dunbar, Seymour; Russell, Price; Reid, Brown, Fagerson; R Gray, J Gray; Barclay, Watson, Hardie.
Replacements: Ross Ford, Allan Dell, Simon Berghan, Tim Swinson, Hamish Watson, Henry Pyrgos, Duncan Weir, Mark Bennett.