Six uncapped players named in Aussie squad

Michael Cheika has named six uncapped players in his Australia squad for next month’s autumn international series.

The Wallabies play Japan in Yokohama on Saturday before arriving in Britain to face Wales, England and Scotland on consecutive weekends. They face Gregor Townsend’s side at BT Murrayfield on 25 November.

In-form Waratahs flanker Jack Dempsey has been ruled out by a hamstring injury, leading to the inclusion of Ben Mccalman, who could play his 50th Test 15 months after winning his 49th cap.

Lock Rory Arnold’s knee problem has opened the door for uncapped pair Matt Philip and Blake Enever, while Jermaine Ainsley is out with an ankle injury. Centre Billy Meakes and outside back Izaia Perese could also make their debuts, while there is no place for stand-off Quade Cooper.

Full-back Jack Maddocks and back-rower Liam Wright are the other uncapped players in the 32-man squad, the pair included by Cheika as development players.

Cheika said: “Lukhan [Tui] won’t be available for the first two games because of his hamstring but we feel he will be ready for games three and four so it’s worth bringing him.

“I wanted to give the opportunity to two new younger guys [at lock] who have had good Super Rugby seasons, and I think Matt Philip has improved out of sight from game one to the final round.

“Rory [Arnold] has a tear in his muscle and it’s come away from the quad so he will have an operation and he will be out for about four to five weeks.

“Jack [Dempsey] has torn two tendons in his hamstring so he will have an operation to re-attach those and it’s a three to four-month return so he will be back next year for Super Rugby.

“We’ll be looking to pick our best side for every Test of the tour. These are important matches and we want to be build a consistent, winning mindset and that’s something we want to pass on to next year’s team.” Boroughmuir enjoyed a successful weekend by defeating Biggar at all age levels in the Shogun Conference matches at Meggetland to underline the club’s growing strength in youth rugby.

In the under-18 match on Saturday, Boroughmuir reversed the result at Hartree Mill back in August, when Biggar won by 43-12. A seven-try performance included two apiece by skipper Canice Murray and Lennox Baselala, and single efforts by Scott Habib, Finlay Devine and James Stewart. Four of Muir’s tries were converted by Lewis Reid

“Boroughmuir played the conditions really well and scored some good running team-supporting tries. It made up for the disappointing loss down at Biggar in the first game of the season.” said Scott Anderson, head of youth rugby at Meggetland.

At U16 level Boroughmuir made it eight wins from eight