Hugo Southwell leads Carlton into European action - but he will be back for Scotland v France

Hugo Southwell is building up for a busy week involving his two sporting loves of cricket and rugby.

On Sunday, he will fly out to Spain with Edinburgh club Carlton to represent Scotland in the European Cricket League 2022 T10 event.

And then, the man who earned 59 rugby caps for his country, will return in time to host hospitality at the Scotland versus France Six Nations game at BT Murrayfield on Saturday afternoon.

Carlton will be playing Group C matches against Brescia from Italy, Cluj from Romania, Prague from the Czech Republic, Olten from Switzerland and Zeytinburnu Zafer from Turkey at the Cartama Cricket Oval in Malaga over the coming days.

The winners of the group then return to Spain for Finals week from March 14 to 18 in an event that involves teams from 29 nations.

“We got through to this competition because we won the Masterton T20 trophy in the East last summer and then the national T20 competition,” Southwell, the 41-year-old who came through the cricketing ranks at Sussex as a youngster, explains.

“The guys played some great cricket in those events so they deserve this opportunity to represent the club and Scottish cricket as a whole on this big stage.

“Obviously T20 is a short format of the game, but T10 [10-overs-a-side] is even shorter so we have been working hard on strategies for the games at our indoor training sessions.

“As a batting unit we really have to be looking to score from every ball because the 60 in the innings will come and go very fast while as bowlers and fielders we just have to keep things as tight as possible.

“We don’t know a lot about our opponents, but we have a strong squad ourselves and it will be a great chance for the younger – and older – guys from Carlton to express