SCOTLAND will have to find a new captain and decide on a starting scrum-half for their remaining Six Nations Championship after it was announced that Greig Laidlaw has been ruled out by injury. The skipper hurt an ankle during the first half of the loss to France four days ago, and the injury was confirmed yesterday as ligament damage.
Ali Price of Glasgow took over from Laidlaw at scrum-half in the Stade de France, and is now in a straight fight with Warriors team-mate Henry Pyrgos for the No 9 jersey against Wales a week on Saturday. Price has been in excellent form in some club games this season while Pyrgos is only just back from injury, but the latter is more experienced in both his position and as a leader, being joint captain of Glasgow this season along with Jonny Gray. Pyrgos could play in the Warriors’ PRO12 game in Ulster on Saturday if it is thought he needs more game time to improve his match fitness, but Price is expected to be rested.
John Barclay took over as captain in the 22-016 defeat by France when Laidlaw was forced off, but he too then had to leave the field because of injury, with Gray taking over. Gray also attended the post-match press conference as captain along with head coach Vern Cotter.
Gray is more sure of his place in the second row alongside his older brother Richie than Barclay is of his in the back row. The Scarlets forward only started against the French because Ryan Wilson was ruled out by an elbow infection, Wilson having started the opening match against Ireland alongside Josh Strauss and Hamish Watson.
“Scotland captain Greig Laidlaw has been ruled out of the remainder of the 2017 RBS Six Nations with an ankle injury,” the announcement from Scottish Rugby said. “A scan undertaken at his club, Gloucester, confirmed the clinical suspicion that the 58-times-capped scrum-half sustained ankle ligament damage midway through the first half of Sunday’s Test match against France.
“The extent of the damage is such that he will take no further part in the current championship. Laidlaw will see a specialist later in the week to determine the best course of management and estimated time out of the sport.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel