Chile v Scotland A: Luke Crosbie captaincy call explained as Sione Tuipulotu is also handed leadership role

Luke Crosbie’s strong finish to the season with Edinburgh has seen him rewarded with the Scotland captaincy for the A international against Chile on Saturday.

The flanker will lead out the tourists in Santiago almost a year to the day after he was supposed to skipper Scotland A against England at Leicester’s Welford Road.

That game was cancelled on the morning of the match due to a Covid outbreak in the Scots camp and Gregor Townsend feels Crosbie deserves another chance at the captaincy.

“He’s a leader by example, the way he plays, the way he trains,” said the national coach. “He’s very proud to represent Scotland, and he’s had captaincy experience at Edinburgh.

“A year ago he was due to be captain in our ‘A’ game against England which unfortunately got cancelled. So we thought highly of him then; we think very highly of him now.

“He missed the Six Nations through injury, but he’s bounced back from that really well and I thought he was one of the form players at the end of the season.”

Crosbie made his Scotland debut in the autumn international against Tonga and it remains his solitary outing for the full national side. Saturday’s game against Chile is a non-cap game but the captaincy is fitting reward for Crosbie whose return in April from a lower leg injury gave Edinburgh an injection of energy in the back row.

With the first match of the South American tour falling outside the designated international window, Townsend was unable to select players from the English Premiership. Fourteen of the starting 15 play for either Glasgow Warriors or Edinburgh with the one outlier being Javan Sebastian of Scarlets. The Welsh side granted permission for the tighthead prop to be included.

Crosbie’s vice-captain will be Sione