Scotland name five uncapped players in Six Nations squad

Gregor Townsend has named five uncapped players in Scotland’s 39-man squad for the upcoming Guinness Six Nations

Saracens back-rower Andy Christie and London Irish scrum-half Ben White are two of the new faces in the pool.

Rory Darge, Ben Vellacott and Kyle Rowe are also rewarded with call-ups ahead of Scotland’s first game of the championship against England at Murrayfield on Saturday 5 February.

Bath centre Cameron Redpath, who enjoyed a memorable debut against England last year, has recovered from injury and will once again be in contention ahead of the Six Nations opener.

Ewan Ashman, Jamie Hodgson, Josh Bayliss, Javan Sebastian, Pierre Schoeman, Rufus McLean and Sione Tuipulotu, who all received their first Scotland caps in the recent autumn Tests, are included once again.

Elsewhere there are call-ups for Edinburgh back-row Magnus Bradbury and prop WP Nel, who missed out on selection for the Autumn Nations, as well as Exeter lock Jonny Gray who also returns.

Northampton centre Rory Hutchinson is included having not featured for Scotland in 2021.

Captain Stuart Hogg is joined by fellow British and Irish Lions Finn Russell, Ali Price, Zander Fagerson, Chris Harris, Rory Sutherland, Duhan Van Der Merwe and Hamish Watson.

Fraser Brown, Adam Hastings, Sean Maitland and George Horne are among the most notable omissions.

The squad will meet up at Oriam on Monday 24 January for a training camp before reconvening the following week ahead of the Calcutta Cup clash.