David Denton
The already depleted Scotland team suffered another big blow, with back row forward David Denton out of their mid-year tour.
The 24-year-old Edinburgh player, Denton, will play no part in the tour matches against Argentina in Cordoba on Friday and for the closing match against South Africa in Port Elizabeth a week on Saturday.
Scotland team doctor James Robson explained that Denton suffered a concussion in his last game of the season for Edinburgh against Leinster in the Pro12 last month.
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“As we’ve always said we regard the welfare of our players as our principal priority and David has not recovered sufficiently to be considered for the intensity of Test match rugby against Argentina and South Africa,” Robson said.
Already players such as Chris Cusiter, Greig Laidlaw, Sean Lamont, Tim Visser, Kelly Brown, Richie Gray, Jim Hamilton and Alasdair Strokosch will not be involved against the Pumas and Boks.
The reason for this is that some of the players will be duty bound to French and English clubs, with the Springbok match falling outside the Test window.
The Scotland management will now consider additional options for the South African leg of the tour, while remaining mindful of the preparations that are already underway for the 2014 Commonwealth Games Sevens in Glasgow next month.
Scotland squad:
Backs: Stuart Hogg, Peter Murchie, Sean Maitland, Tommy Seymour, Dougie Fife, Nick De Luca, Peter Horne, Tom Heathcote, Duncan Weir, Henry Pyrgos and Grayson Hart.
Forwards: Gordon Reid, Alasdair Dickinson, Kevin Bryce, Pat MacArthur, Ross Ford, Jon Welsh, Geoff Cross, Moray Low, Tim Swinson, Grant Gilchrist, Jonny Gray, Kieran Low, Robert Harley, Blair Cowan and Chris Fusaro.
Was at the WP Craven Week capping ceremony last night. Here’s the U/18 team that will play in Middelburg.
The fullback must be from the Pieterse’s of Constantia….
Western Province: 15 Gerard Pieterse (Bishops) 14 Duncan Saal (Kasselsvlei), 13 Justin Heunis (Bishops), 12 Edrich Venter (Paul Roos), 11 Edwill van der Merwe (Paul Roos), 10 Jez MacIntyre (Bishops), 9 Herschell Jantjies (Paul Roos), 8 Saud Abrahams (Bishops), 7 Zain Davids (Rondebosch), 6 Mervano da Silva (Bishops), 5 Ruben de Villiers (Paarl Boys High), 4 Jaco Willemse (Paarl Gim), 3 JP Smith (Bishops), 2 Jacques van Zyl (Paul Roos) 1 Gavin van den Berg (Paarl Gim)
Replacements: 16 Shane Farmer (Tygerberg), 17 Wikus Groenewald (Paarl Boys High), 18 Jerome Korf (Paul Roos), 19 Charl-François du Toit (Paarl Boys High), 20 Johndré Williams (Boland Landbou), 21 Aidynn Cupido (Paul Roos), 22 Ryan Muller (HS Bellville).
This Scottish team was in USA, now in Argentina and then off to SA…
Is it the same squad or did/do other players join later?
If not they will get murdered by the Boks
@ Tuff Gong 1
Similar look to when I was at school in the 80’s…Bishops, Bishops, Bishops, Bishops, Bishops..Rondebosch, Paul Roos, Paarl Gym, Booishaai….at least, unlike in those days, there are 3 Northern Suburb kids in the group.
We never even had that luxury back then
😀
The game that Denton picked up the concussion in was played 5 weeks ago (on 10th May) so this for him to be out this long could mean either that it is quite serious or that with all the discussion about concussion of late they are rather erring on the side of caution in dealing with this. Hopefully for him it is the latter.
2 @ Gena_ZA:
Hi Gena Scotland were also in Canada with their test last weekend. Right from the outset there were two squads announced with some players for the first two tests (USA and Canada) and some for the second two (Argentina and Boks) while some of the players were there for the whole tour. But it has been quite difficult to follow who is doing what with various injuries that have been picked up both domestically and on tour and then there has also been some swopping due to player movements between Scottish clubs and outside clubs. To add to the complexity of it you also had some of the players kept back initially due to them being in the Scotland 7s squad for the Commonwealth Games. The players based outside Scotland were only intended to be there for the first two tests as the game against SA is outside the international window but due to injuries some of them have been kept on at least for the test against Argentina – Kieran Low and Blair Cowan. Nick da Luca (who wasn’t in either initial squads) has been flown out to Argentina but he has signed to play for Biarritz for next season so am not sure whether he will, like the other players based outside Scotland, be available for the game against the Boks. So there should still be more changes to the squad, hopefully there are no injuries picked up against Argentina.
Looking at the Scotland squad there are 8 front rowers (3 of which hookers) so quite well covered there. Then 3 locks and only 4 backrow players (two of which could double up at lock if needed) two of the backrowers are ‘fetchers’ so this is really where there big problems for the rest of this tour. Hooker Kevin Bryce had to come on as sub in the backrow against Canada as all three starting loose forwards got injured during the game, so maybe he is being earmarked to possibly be used on the bench for the backrow. With all the injuries and many other loose forwards not based in Scotland it will be hard to find players, as it is the bulk of the squad is made up of Glasgow players and now with Denton out am not sure how many if any at all could be called up from Edinburgh as they have so many non-Scottish qualified players there.
In the backline it looks reasonably well covered (numbers wise) at halfbacks and back three with only two specialist centres in the squad, one of which is Da Luca who may or may not tour to South Africa, Dougie Fife the winger can play centre as well though so he may a sub used to cover wing or centre if need be.
Just spotted now that out of the eight front rowers one has signed to play in England – Moray Low – so am not sure if he will in South Africa. I guess for him and Da Luca it may depend on whether their contracts with their new clubs have started yet or are only due to start in a few weeks time, if it is only in a few weeks time then they could play against the Boks. Phew quite a tough situation for the management to handle, at this rate I may get a call up
Oh yes Geoff Cross is also leaving Scotland to play for London Irish next season., he was an Edinburgh player but has been on loan for the last part of the season at Glasgow …
Enough talking to myself cheers for now
Scotland team to play Argentina on Saturday has been announced, no time now to put article up:
15. Hogg
14. Maitland
13. De Luca
12. Horne
11. Seymour
10. Weir
9. Hart
8. Low
7. Cowan
6. Harley
5. Gilchrist (C)
4. Gray
3. Cross
2. Ford
1. Dickinson
16. Macarthur
17. Reid
18. Welsh
19. Swinson
20. Fusaro
21. Pyrgos
22. Heathcote
23. Fife
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