Pyrgos to replace injured Price
24 Sep 2019Edinburgh scrum-half Henry Pyrgos will replace injured Glasgow Warriors counterpart Ali Price in the Scotland squad for Rugby World Cup 2019.
The 28 times capped scrum-half sustained a foot injury in the national team’s opening Pool A defeat to Ireland at the International Stadium Yokohama.
The following day (Monday) the team travelled to Kobe – the host city of Scotland’s next world cup clash against Samoa – where an x-ray confirmed he would play no further part in the tournament.
The change will mean a second world cup appearance for his replacement, Pyrgos, who will seek to add to his 27 Scotland caps to date – the last of which came in the national team’s home win over Australia in 2017.
Pyrgos is scheduled to arrive in Japan on Thursday and take his place in the 31-man group preparing to face the Pacific Islanders at the Kobe Misaki Stadium on Monday (30 September, kick-off 7.15pm).
Head Coach, Gregor Townsend, said: “We’re disappointed for Ali [Price] to have to return home so early in the tournament.
“Both Ali and Hamish (Watson) had invested a lot of effort into being in their best physical shape for the world cup and it’s a shame they’ve only been involved in one game.
“However, we have a lot of belief in our wider group and the two new players [Magnus Bradbury and Henry Pyrgos] who have been given this opportunity.”
