Rugby World Cup 2023: Stuart McInally set to retire after omission from Scotland’s 33-man squad
Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend has omitted former captain Stuart McInally from his final 33-man squad to travel to France for this year’s Rugby World Cup.
Townsend admitted the decisions he had to make on who to cut were “really tough” as Murphy Walker, Josh Bayliss, and Jamie Dobie also missed out on the chance to represent Scotland in the sport’s showpiece event.
McInally, 33, led Scotland at the last Rugby World Cup in Japan and is now due to retire from the sport to become an airline pilot having previously hoped to make his final appearance in France.
Townsend has named 19 forwards and 14 backs in his final 33, which will be led by captain Jamie Ritchie as Scotland hope to progress from a group that contains defending champions South Africa and top-ranked Ireland.
Ritchie is one of 15 players to have featured in a previous Rugby World Cup for Scotland, while there are 12 set to make their debuts in the tournament.
Edinburgh prop WP Nel is the oldest player on Townsend’s roster at 37 and Richie Gray is the most capped, having played for Scotland 75 times.
Full-back Ollie Smith is the youngest at 23 and fly-half Ben Healy is the least experienced with just two caps.
White and Van der Merwe fitness update
There were concerns about the fitness of scrum-half Ben White and South African-born Duhan van der Merwe, both of whom picked up knocks against France.
However, the pair are in line to recover in time for Scotland’s opening game against South Africa on September 10.
“I twisted my ankle a bit, luckily it was nothing serious,” Van der Merwe told the PA news agency.
“It’s fine, should be all good. We’ve had Monday and Tuesday off so we’ll assess it today but hopefully it will be all good and I’m fine for Georgia.”
Asked if he’d be ready to start against South Africa, he added: “Yes, 100 per cent.”
As for White, Townsend downplayed his ankle scare and allayed any fears he wouldn’t be available for the South Africa fixture.
“Ben’s good,” Townsend said. “He had a meeting with the specialist on Monday and that was positive.
“He ran yesterday, which was the first time he’d ran in 10 days, so we’ll see over the next two or three days if he’ll be available for next week’s game, that’s the target.
“It would be nice to have him available for next week but if he doesn’t come right for that, we know he’ll be available for South Africa.”
Scotland play Georgia on August 26 in their final warm-up game.
Scotland’s Rugby World Cup squad
- Ewan Ashman (Edinburgh Rugby)
- Jamie Bhatti (Glasgow Warriors)
- Dave Cherry (Edinburgh Rugby)
- Luke Crosbie (Edinburgh Rugby)
- Scott Cummings (Glasgow Warriors)
- Rory Darge (Glasgow Warriors)
- Jack Dempsey (Glasgow Warriors)
- Matt Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors)
- Zander Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors)
- Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh Rugby)
- Richie Gray (Glasgow Warriors)
- WP Nel (Edinburgh Rugby)
- Jamie Ritchie (Edinburgh Rugby)
- Pierre Schoeman (Edinburgh Rugby)
- Javan Sebastian (Edinburgh Rugby)
- Sam Skinner (Edinburgh Rugby)
- Rory Sutherland (Unattached)
- George Turner (Glasgow Warriors)
- Hamish Watson (Edinburgh Rugby)
- Darcy Graham (Edinburgh Rugby)
- Chris Harris (Gloucester Rugby)
- Ben Healy (Edinburgh Rugby)
- George Horne (Glasgow Warriors)
- Huw Jones (Glasgow Warriors)
- Blair Kinghorn (Edinburgh Rugby)
- Ali Price (Glasgow Warriors)
- Cameron Redpath (Bath Rugby)
- Finn Russell (Bath Rugby)
- Ollie Smith (Glasgow Warriors)
- Kyle Steyn (Glasgow Warriors)
- Sione Tuipulotu (Glasgow Warriors)
- Duhan van der Merwe (Edinburgh Rugby)
- Ben White (RC Toulon)
Read the full article Here
