White and Christie among five uncapped players in Scotland Six Nations squad

Gregor Townsend has named five uncapped players in Scotland’s 39-man squad for next months’s Six Nations. The 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 before Scotland’s first game of the championship against England at Murrayfield on Saturday 5 February. The Bath centre Cameron Redpath, who enjoyed a memorable debut against England last year, has recovered from injury and will once again be in contention for the Six Nations opener.

Included once again are 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.

Elsewhere there are call-ups for the Edinburgh back-row Magnus Bradbury and prop WP Nel, who missed out on selection for the Autumn Nations, as well as the Exeter lock Jonny Gray, who also returns. The Northampton centre Rory Hutchinson is included having not featured for Scotland in 2021.

The captain Stuart Hogg is joined by fellow British & 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 before the Calcutta Cup match.

Backs: Mark Bennett, Darcy Graham, Chris Harris, Stuart Hogg (capt), Rory Hutchinson, Sam Johnson, Blair Kinghorn, Rufus McLean, Ali Price, Cameron Redpath, Kyle Rowe, Finn Russell, Kyle Steyn, Sione Tuipulotu, Duhan van der Merwe, Ben Vellacott, Ben White.

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