FERGUS Thomson has been handed a pick-me-up the day after he was left out of Scotland's touring squad, by being named captain of the Scotland A team for the Barclays Churchill Cup, while Marcus Di Rollo has won a recall to the international firmament.
Rob Moffat, the new Scotland A team head coach, has selected a 27-man squad to travel to North America next month which blends promising young talent intent on stepping up to the full Test stage in the near future with a core of eight full internatio
nalists. However, space has been left for one more player to be added later this month as the ramifications of the main squad, and its wait on injured and France-based players, filter down.
With the best under-20s in Scotland unavailable, due to their competing in the new IRB Junior World Championship in June, Moffat and assistant coaches Shade Munro, Gary Mercer and Stephen Gemmell did not have a huge pool to pick from, but it has provided an opportunity to welcome Di Rollo back from the international wilderness.
The centre withdrew from the Scotland scene last year on moving to Toulouse from Edinburgh, in an effort to concentrate solely on winning a place at his new club.
However, he has been dogged by an injury problem and failed to win over the Toulouse coach Guy Noves, playing just two minutes off the bench for the first team. It is understood that he is keen to return to Edinburgh, but there has been no deal done and this may provide Di Rollo with a shop window to prove he still has what it takes to play at a high level.
As well as Di Rollo, there are recalls to the Scottish set-up for Jon Dunbar, the Leeds back row, Steve Jones, the former Borders fly-half at Newcastle, ex-Gala flanker Andy Miller, now at Exeter, and Rob Dewey, the Ulster centre, while exciting young talents Max Evans, James Eddie, Mark Robertson and David Young are among a host of up-and-coming players to be given chances in the Churchill Cup.
Moffat stated: "We've got an exciting group of players – a good mix of ambitious young players and a few internationalists.
"Although the average age of the squad is relatively young, I'm confident that the players are ready to take that next step up and contribute to a successful tour."
Thomson, the Glasgow hooker who pushed himself into the frame with Scotland this season, went to the World Cup and started against Italy in the recent RBS Six Nations Championship, has been rested at Glasgow lately due to the heavy season, which began for Thomson, like many Scots, last May with pre-World Cup training. He admitted that he was disappointed to miss out on the Argentina Test series, but has been buoyed with the A team captaincy.
He said: "Although I was disappointed not to make the Scotland tour to Argentina, it's a great honour to captain my country at 'A' level."
The Barclays Churchill Cup features the USA, Canada, England Saxons, Ireland A and Argentina Pumas this year as well as the Scots, with Moffat's team facing Canada in Ottawa on 7 June, Argentina A on 11 June in their pool games, with the finals in Chicago on 21 June.
The full article contains 566 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
