Glasgow Warriors' Scotland contingent told to treat Connacht clash as Six Nations audition

The four Scotland squad members who have been released back to Glasgow Warriors for this afternoon’s trip to Galway to take on Connacht will view the game as an opportunity to push their case for a role in the Six Nations, according to Danny Wilson.

Winger Rufus McLean, outside-centre Kyle Steyn and inside-centre Sione Tuipulotu will all start today’s match, while prop Jamie Bhatti is on the bench, indicating that they will not be involved in next weekend’s championship opener against England at Murrayfield.

“I think they’ve all come back motivated with the message from the Scotland coaching team being: ‘go back and play well and we’ll be watching you’,” said head coach Wilson.

“Let’s take Sione moving from outside to inside centre for us, that’s an opportunity for him to really put his hand up from a Scotland point of view and show that he’s got that versatility.

“And Rufus needs game time because he’s not played a lot recently due to Covid issues and a few other bits and pieces, so this is an opportunity for him to get back out there. Treviso [at the end of November] had been the last he had played up until last weekend against La Rochelle. He is a young man, and he needs to be out there playing rugby to find and keep the form we saw from him in the autumn.

“The swapping of environments later in the week is the tricky bit, but they have been with us for a long time now so I’m confident they will cope,” he added.

Scott Cummings, Rory Darge, Matt Fagerson, Zander Fagerson, Sam Johnson, Ali Price and George Turner are not involved this weekend, which suggests that they will be involved in the Calcutta Cup game in seven days’ time.

Despite eight changes to the starting XV from last weekend’s Champions Cup encounter against