Tyrone Holmes

Scotland head to South Africa this week on the final leg of what has been an arduous tour which has seen them play games in the USA, Canada and Argentina.

They set out with two squads selected for the tour, one which contained players for the North America leg and one for the Southern Hemisphere leg with some players there for the whole tour. There have been various changes made on the way though and now the Glasgow Warriors trio of Tyrone Holmes, Adam Ashe and Euan Murray have been added to the squad for the final test against the Springboks in Port Elizabeth on Saturday.

The former Stormers and Western Province flanker Tyrone Holmes joined Glasgow Warriors ahead of this season having spent some time playing in Italy after being part of the Vodacom and Currie Cup winning Western Province sides in 2012. He qualifies to play for Scotland due to the fact that his father Steven was born in Peebles in the Borders area of Scotland. He played in nineteen games for Glasgow Warriors this season, starting in eleven of them, and put in a man of the match performance against Exeter during the Heineken Cup.

Holmes has travelled quite a bit in his career as he had a spell of four months training with Toulon while he was part of the Rugby Performance Centre (RPC) run by Alan Zondagh. After he left the RPC he joined Northampton Saints Academy for five months where he was able to continue his rugby education surrounded by top players such as Ben Cohen, Carlos Spencer and Bruce Reihana. Since then he has played for Western Province in various stints which were interrupted by spells at Griquas as well as southwest England teams Penzance and Cornish Pirates, and made his Super Rugby debut for the Stormers in 2012.  He is quite a versatile sportsman as he has also played ice hockey for South Africa, at the World Ice Hockey Championships, and has represented Western Province in life saving.

The 20 year old Adam Ashe is also a loose forward. He has only played twice for the Glasgow Warriors but has also played 7s for Scotland as well as for the Scotland U20s, U18s and U17s teams in the fifteen man game.  He got the man of the match award in 2013 for the U20s playing in their Six Nations tournament against Ireland. This tour will be a steep learning curve for him and one doubts that he will get a start against the Springboks. At best he can hope for a bench spot, but one thinks that he will just be so pleased to be part of the senior squad and will savour being in the environment on tour regardless of whether he actually gets to play against South Africa at all.

The two loose forwards are most probably replacing London Irish duo Kieran Low and Blair Cowan who need to return to the UK as the game against the Springboks falls outside the IRB international window.

Tight head veteran Euan Murray played for Worcester Warriors recently but has re-joined Glasgow now for the 2014/15 season on a one year deal. He will be a welcome addition to add much needed experience for new head coach Vern Cotter to call upon in what will be a stern test for Scotland in Port Elizabeth. Murray comes into the squad for fellow Glasgow Warriors prop Gordon Reid who returns home for some much needed rest ahead of preseason training which starts soon in Glasgow.