As Scotland look to end a wretched sequence of results outside Murrayfield in the Six Nations, they have called up the flanker John Hardie for the first time since he completed a three-month ban for allegedly taking cocaine.
The 29-year old, whose last international appearance was against Fiji in June, is one of 10 players added to the squad by the Scotland head coach, Gregor Townsend, for Saturday’s match against Ireland in Dublin, with the second-row Richie Gray, the prop Zander Fagerson, the wing Byron McGuigan and the hooker Fraser Brown among the others.
“John is a fantastic player with a good pedigree and history of playing for Scotland,” their skills coach, Mike Blair, said. “When you have a player like him available, it is silly not to have him involved in some way. He has had his time off, been helped through that and the focus now is on the rugby side of things.”
Dublin was the last Six Nations city Scotland won away in, other than Rome. That was in 2010 and Ireland have not lost at home in the championship since 2013, 12 matches ago.
Ireland expect their Lions tight-five forwards Tadhg Furlong and Iain Henderson, who missed the victory over Wales in the last round with hamstring strains, to take a full part in training this week. The hooker Rob Herring and the wing Barry Daly have been called into the squad to cover for injuries.
Meanwhile, the Wales wing George North is reported to be angry at the suggestion by Alan Gaffney, the coaching consultant at his club, Northampton, that he did not want to play for the Saints against Sale at Franklin’s Gardens last Saturday.
When asked why North, who had been released by Wales, was not in the side, Gaffney replied: “It’s probably best to ask George. We picked a side that actually wanted to be out on the pitch.” North, who is returning to Wales next season, was rested during the fallow weekends of the Six Nations by Jim Mallinder, who was sacked as the club’s director of rugby in December, and the player expected the arrangement to continue.
