Scotland to compete in Assupol International 7s Tournament

John Dalziel has announced his first ever Scotland 7s squad as the team prepare to travel to South Africa for the Assupol International 7s Tournament.

Scotland are one of eight teams invited to participate in the tournament that will be treated as a warm up event for the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series that begins in Dubai on December 1.

The tournament will be played at the Markotter rugby fields in Stellenbosch and sees Scotland come up against six African sides including last year’s World Series Champions South Africa.

Fellow World Series participants Kenya and Uganda are also involved, as are an English Academies side.

Dalziel has named a strong squad, including nine core players captained by Scott Riddell while Harvey Elms, Robbie Fergusson and Sam Pecquer will all pull on a Scotland 7s jersey for the first time.

BT Sport Scottish Rugby Academy Stage 3 players Ross McCann and Robbie Nairn both travel. Both players know John Dalziel well having played for him for at Scotland U20s level.

Former Edinburgh Rugby and Glasgow Warriors fly-half Gregor Hunter is also included in the squad.

Scotland 7s Head Coach John Dalziel said: “It will be good to replicate six games over two days.

“We’ll go into the tournament ¾ of the way through our pre-season so we aren’t looking for the finished article yet.

“What we’re looking for is durability and to see how how the players recover game to game, day to day so we can push on to the World Series.”