Scotland 7s fixtures and squad for Sydney announced

Scotland 7s Head Coach Calum MacRae has been forced into four changes to his squad ahead of this weekend’s HSBC World Sevens Series tournament in Sydney.Scott Wight (Scotland 7s), Robert Beattie (Glasgow Hawks), Ben Robbins (Currie) and Gregor Hunter (Gala) all come in to replace influential injured quartet Nick McLennan (knee), James Johnstone (shoulder), Scott Riddell (abdominal) and Dougie Fife (shoulder).Wight, who featured on day two in Wellington brings his wealth of experience to the squad and will captain the side in Riddell’s absence while Robert Beattie returns having made his debut in Cape Town.Former Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh Rugby stand-off Hunter and BT Sport Scottish Rugby Academy Stage 3 player Robbins are both included in a World Series squad for the first time having trained with the team at the pre-series camp.Scotland have been drawn as top seeds in Pool C against hosts Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.Scotland 7s Head Coach, Calum MacRae, said: “This week has been a big challenge for us as a squad having picked up a few injuries but they provide Bobby Beattie with the opportunity to build on his first outing in Cape Town, while Gregor Hunter and Ben Robbins come in for the first time.”Both Gregor and Ben performed well at the Oriam camp and will get an opportunity to test himself at World Series level.”As debutants, they can take a lot of confidence from the work they completed in training at home.”It is disappointing to lose Jimmy (Johnstone), Nick (McLennan), Scott (Riddell) and Dougie (Fife) to injuries as all have been influential to our strong start to the series.”Jimmy is one of the best running attackers in Scottish rugby and has produced some stellar performances already this series. He is an influencial player and will be missed.”Nick has been Mr. Consistency since he joined us, his defensive contributions in Wellington kept us in games and his tenacity and desire to win rubs off on those around him.We were hopeful that Dougie and Scott might revover in time to play this weekend however they just missed out and we wish all four of them a speedy recovery. Scotland 7s fixtures in the fourth leg of the World Rugby HSBC Sevens Series in Sydney, Saturday 4 February & Sunday 5 February (Kick-off times in GMT)Saturday 41.04am – Scotland 7s v Papua New Guinea 7s3.59am – Scotland 7s v Australia 7s9.57am – Scotland 7s v New Zealand 7s Sunday 5 FebruaryTBC Scotland 7s squad to compete in Sydney1. Ben Robbins2. Gregor Hunter3. Fraser Lyle4. Robert Beattie5. Glenn Bryce6. Mark Robertson7. Jamie Farndale8. Nyle Godsmark9. George Horne10. Scott Wight (c)11. James Fleming 12. Gavin Lowe