Coach Cotter on the double for Scotland

AFP/LondonVern Cotter announced his first squad as Scotland coach yesterday—and the New Zealander produced two tour parties for next month’s internationals. Cotter, still in charge of French champions Castres, named separate squads for a North American tour that features Tests against the United States and Canada and a Southern Hemisphere trip where the Scots will play internationals against Argentina and South Africa. In total, 43 players have been selected but nine men—backs Alex Dunbar, Sean Maitland and Stuart Hogg and forwards Gordon Reid, Pat MacArthur, Kevin Bryce, Moray Low, Geoff Cross and Grant Gilchrist have been selected for both legs. Cotter also picked six uncapped players in Glasgow forwards Gordon Reid, Alex Allan and Kevin Bryce and the Celtic League finalists’ promising midfielder Finn Russell has also been called up together with London Irish openside Blair Cowan and Edinburgh scrum-half Grayson Hart. But some potential tourists have been omitted because of their likely involvement in the Commonwealth Games Sevens in Glasgow. “I’m very much looking forward to starting work with the Scotland players as we begin our 16-match countdown to the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England,” Cotter said in a Scottish Rugby Union statement. “We’ve included a mix of the battle-hardened and promising new talent and it will be good to see how players step up to tough and different challenges at the end of a long domestic campaign. “Working with Scott Johnson (former head coach and now Scotland’s director of rugby) and the national coaches, we’ve selected, effectively, two squads for our itinerary this summer taking into account Glasgow Warriors’ pursuit of Pro 12 (Celtic League) silverware and the fact that our match against South Africa falls outwith the IRB Regulation 9 window,” Cotter explained. Cotter will consider the issue of captaincy when  preparations for the North American leg of the tour begin next week.