URC: Glasgow get five Scotland squad members back for Dragons trip
Yesterday at 04:00 PM
FIVE members of the current Scotland squad have been released back to Glasgow for their trip to Wales to take on the Dragons on Sunday. And although Franco Smith’s team will still be without some other key internationals who have either been retained by the national squad or are still on the injury list, the returning quintet appear sure to make a significant contribution as the URC champions try to strengthen their grip on second place with a win against the league’s bottom club.
"George Horne is here,” assistant coach Pete Murchie said earlier today. “We've got Jamie Bhatti, Ollie Smith, Jack Mann, Euan Ferrie – they're all training.
"They seem in a good place. They're happy to be back. We get good energy from them and they're all quality players.
"We trust in their professionalism and they love playing for Glasgow. So hopefully we get a good performance on Sunday and it only strengthens their case for the rest of the Six Nations."
Huw Jones, Matt and Zander Fagerson, Jack Dempsey and Jamie Dobie are among the players to have been retained by Scotland, while national captain Sione Tuipulotu and Scott Cummings are at present unavailable for either club or country because of injury.
The list of other players who are currently inactive through medium- or long-term injuries includes club captain Kyle Steyn, JP du Preez and Sione Vailanu, all of whom have had knee injuries, and Adam Hastings, who suffered a facial fracture. Steyn is now out of a leg brace but has yet to start training with the squad again. However, the other three are getting closer to a return, according to Murchie.
"I don't have an exact time frame [for Steyn’s return],” the defence coach said. “He is out of his brace, but he's not on pitch yet training, he's not doing skills. He's obviously unlikely for the Calcutta Cup. He is progressing. There's no issues, there's no setbacks as such, but he's not foreseeable.
"Adam is doing well. He's ramped up his stuff. He's started his contact work this week, so there will be a certain amount of time where he needs to ramp up his contact work, but he's been training for the last couple of weeks now, doing pretty much most things. So not for this week, but he's getting closer.
"JP is fully training, which is great after such a long time out. There's a couple of weeks there to be done, but he's fully training.
"Sione Vailanu is out on the pitch. He's maybe not quite as far along as JP, but he's training."
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