{"id":372267,"date":"2025-12-26T04:20:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T04:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/372267\/"},"modified":"2025-12-26T04:20:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T04:20:10","slug":"four-players-who-could-make-their-scotland-debuts-in-2026-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/372267\/","title":{"rendered":"Four players who could make their Scotland debuts in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n The introduction of the Nations Championship will give Scotland more opportunities to test themselves against the best teams in the world, with a summer match-up against world champions South Africa and a shot at redemption against Argentina after the collapse at Murrayfield<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n The All Blacks will also return to Edinburgh next November as Scotland aim for a first ever win over New Zealand in international rugby.\u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n Townsend has\u00a0stated\u00a0he will\u00a0likely stick\u00a0with\u00a0the majority of\u00a0an experienced squad between now and the World Cup, as he looks to lead Scotland to the knockout stage for the first time since 2015.\u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n However, we have picked out four\u00a0players who could force their way into his thoughts for a Scotland debut over the next 12 months.\u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n Gregor Hiddleston\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n Gregor Hiddleston scored a try in Glasgow’s win at Hampden (Image: Stuart Wallace\/Shutterstock)\n<\/p>\n

\n The Glasgow Warriors<\/a> hooker has been in outstanding form, capped with tries against Toulouse and Edinburgh.\u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n The 23-year-old was overlooked by Townsend in favour of Edinburgh pair Paddy Harrison and Harri Morris for the autumn, but if he keeps up his current form, Hiddleston will be difficult to ignore.\u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n His throwing\u00a0is consistent and Hiddleston seems to have added to his game this season, becoming more of a threat at the breakdown and defensively solid.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n An injury to Harrison, coupled with Edinburgh using Dylan Richardson<\/a> in the\u00a0back-row, should open the door for the Glasgow man to get a place in the Six Nations<\/a> squad.\u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n Ollie Blyth-Lafferty\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n Ollie Blyth-Lafferty\u00a0 (Image: Edinburgh Rugby)\n<\/p>\n

\n The teenage tighthead prop has made an encouraging start to life in professional rugby and more than held his own against France<\/a> prop Jean-Baptiste Gros when Edinburgh faced Toulon.\u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n There are high hopes for the 19-year-old, who has long been earmarked as the\u00a0eventual\u00a0successor to Zander\u00a0Fagerson.\u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n With\u00a0D\u2019arcy\u00a0Rae out injured, and none of the other tighthead options nailing down the role as back-up to\u00a0Fagerson, there is a chance Townsend could turn to Blyth-Lafferty sooner rather than later.\u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n There may be a desire from Scottish Rugby to balance Blyth-Lafferty’s own development with the success of the under-20s,\u00a0but\u00a0he should at least get an invite to train with Scotland during the Six Nations as part of his development and to get used to the international set-up.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n Edinburgh have used Blyth-Lafferty sparingly so far. If he can get more minutes under his belt in the new year, he should at least get an invite to train with Scotland during the Six Nations as part of his development and to get used to the international set-up.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n Read more:\n<\/p>\n

\n Alex\u00a0Masibaka\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n Alexander Masibaka played for Scotland against the Maori All Blacks but is still waiting for his first cap (Image: David Rowland\/Getty Images)\n<\/p>\n

\n The Fijian-born\u00a0back-row\u00a0has been part of the squad for about a year but a combination of injuries and\u00a0strong competition\u00a0have denied him a cap thus far.\u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n He has worn the Scotland jersey before, but in the non-cap victory over the\u00a0Maori\u00a0All Blacks in the summer. He would\u00a0almost certainly\u00a0have made his test debut against USA in November but picked up a shoulder injury on duty for\u00a0Montpellier.\u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n Chances are running out if\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0to be part of the World Cup plans, and the emergence of Liam McConnell\u00a0won\u2019t\u00a0have helped his cause.\u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n However, the 24-year-old has started the season well for Montpellier and\u00a0could get a shot in Nations Championship games against Fiji or Japan to show his worth.\u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n Josh McKay\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n Josh McKay\u00a0has been consistently excellent for Glasgow and is eligible for Scotland in the autumn (Image: Tim Rogers \/ Shutterstock)\n<\/p>\n

\n The New Zealand-born Glasgow Warriors fullback will become eligible for Scotland next autumn and should be a contender to make Townsend\u2019s squad for the second round of the Nations Championship.\u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n While Scotland have plenty of options for the 15 jersey \u2013 Blair Kinghorn<\/a>, Tom Jordan<\/a>, Kyle Rowe<\/a>, Ollie\u00a0Smith\u00a0and Harry Paterson, to name just a few \u2013 a player of McKay\u2019s quality and consistency will be hard to ignore.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n He\u2019s\u00a0also assured under the high ball and defensively solid, which has not always been the case for incumbent Kinghorn, despite his\u00a0undoubted\u00a0talent.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The introduction of the Nations Championship will give Scotland more opportunities to test themselves against the best teams…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-372267","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}