Exeter's Scottish quartet to face Italy

By Mark Stevens
11/11/20

Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend has today named four Exeter Chiefs players in his match-day squad for Saturday's 2020 Autumn Nations Cup away to Italy in Florence (12:45pm)

Captain Stuart Hogg and Jonny Gray will both start the fixture, whilst Sam Skinner and Sam Hidalgo-Clyne are named amongst the replacements.

It will be Hidalgo-Clyne's first involvement with the national side since the last of his 12 Test caps back in June 2018 against Argentina.

It is, however, rich reward for the scrum-half who, along with Hogg, Gray and Skinner were heavily involved in helping the Chiefs to secure Premiership and European titles at the end of the season.

Elsewhere, Townsend has made three changes from the recent Guinness Six Nations win in Wales with Worcester Warriors fly-half Duncan Weir winning his 29th cap.

Sam Johnson earns his first appearance of the autumn at inside centre, while there is one change in the pack with Edinburgh hooker Stuart McInally starting.

Also added to the bench alongside Skinner and Hidalgo-Clyne are Edinburgh forwards WP Nel and Nick Haining, as well as Glasgow Warrior, Oli Kebble.

“It’s exciting to be a part of this new competition, and also to play in Florence for the first time. Italy recorded a famous win against South Africa in this stadium, and we are well aware of the quality they have in their squad that they can raise their game to a similar level this weekend.

“While we gained confidence from the win over Wales, we have been working hard to improve in all areas of our game, and we believe that there is a lot more to come from this group of players. The energy has been great at training and we are seeing real competition for places throughout our squad. We are looking forward to this squad grabbing their opportunity to play and take the game to the opposition.”

Scotland team to play Italy

15. Stuart Hogg (Exeter Chiefs, capt 77 caps)
14. Darcy Graham (Edinburgh, 13 caps)
13. Chris Harris (Gloucester, 20 caps)
12. Sam Johnson (Glasgow Warriors, 13 caps)
11. Duhan van der Merwe (Edinburgh, 2 caps)
10. Duncan Weir (Worcester Warriors, 28 caps)
9. Ali Price (Glasgow Warriors, 34 caps)
1. Rory Sutherland (Edinburgh, 9 caps)
2. Stuart McInally (Edinburgh, 39 caps)
3. Zander Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors, 31 caps)
4. Scott Cummings (Glasgow Warriors, 14 caps)
5. Jonny Gray (Exeter Chiefs, 58 caps)
6. Jamie Ritchie (Edinburgh, 20 caps)
7. Hamish Watson (Edinburgh 34 caps)
8. Blade Thomson (Scarlets, 6 caps)

16. George Turner (Glasgow Warriors 9 caps)
17. Oli Kebble (Glasgow Warriors 2 caps)
18. WP Nel (Edinburgh 38 caps)
19. Sam Skinner (Exeter Chiefs 7 caps)
20. Nick Haining (Edinburgh 4 caps)
21. Sam Hidalgo-Clyne (Exeter Chiefs, 12 caps)
22. James Lang (Harlequins, 4 caps)
23. Blair Kinghorn (Edinburgh 23 caps)