Richardson among 14 rookies in Scots squad
tourtosouthafricaandhaven’tplayed since, are named in the squad. There arealsoreturnsforexperiencedhookersstuartmcinallyandfraserbrown whobothmissedthesixnationswith neck injuries. Their inclusion sees Dave Cherry drop out, tough luck on the Edinburgh man who had a solid Six Nations after making his internationaldebutoffthebenchinthehistoric
win over England at Twickenham.
Edinburgh centre Mark Bennett, who was last capped in the defeat by the United States in Houston in 2018, is back after a fine start to the season and there is also a recall for Murray Mccallum, the thrice capped prop who moved to Glasgow from Edinburgh in the summer.
Notable omissions include Jaco van derwalt,theedinburghstand-offwho was man of the match in their draw with the Stormers on Saturday, experienced Glasgow No 10 Duncan Weir and tightheads WP Nel and Simon Berghan.
Townsend said: “It has been great to see both Edinburgh Rugby and Glasgow Warriors make positive starts to
their URC campaigns driven by some standout performances from both young and established players.
“With four tough Test matches ahead of us in this year’s Autumn Nationsseriesitisimportantwebring players together early, connect with them as coaches and enable them to grow as a group before the campaign gets underway against Tonga at BT Murrayfield.we’llthenmoveontothe challengeoffacingin-formaustralia, world champions South Africa and a very dangerous Japan team.
“We are pleased with the depth we are able to call upon to make up this training squad and it provides a genuine opportunity for players to put their hand up for selection to the full Autumn Nations Series squad.”