Hogging Scotland limelight

Glasgow Warrior captains national side and debuts for seven

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

Dark Blues head coach Gregor Townsend has named a revamped starting XV after last weekend’s 48-10 win against Canada, with seven players set to win their first caps.

Hogg’s Glasgow teammates Matt Fagerson and George Horne will make their international bows alongside their elder brothers, with back-row Fagerson joined by prop Zander and scrum-half Horne lining up alongside inside-centre Pete.

There will also be debuts for Glasgow trio Jamie Bhatti, George Turner and Adam Hastings, as well as Edinburgh’s Lewis Carmichael and Luke Hamilton.

Townsend, who has changed all but three of the side that thrashed the Canadians in Edmonton last weekend, said: “We

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■ 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 United States 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 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, so this will be a real test for us on Saturday.”

The Edinburgh pair of Ben Toolis and Blair Kinghorn as well as Sale wing Byron McGuigan are the only players to retain their places at the home of MLS outfit Houston Dynamos.

Saturday’s 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.

CAPTAIN’S CALL: Stuart Hogg in full flow as he touches down for Scotland