Rugby Union: Scottish chance

FOR once no Grand Slam is at stake, but passions are still expected to run high when England venture on to a Scottish rugby field today.

The setting is Selkirk's home, Philiphaugh. The occasion is an annual sevens tournament which offers the chance to prepare for the inaugural World Sevens scheduled for Murrayfield next April.

England plans to include players of the calibre of Will Carling, Jeremy Guscott and Peter Winterbottom have fallen through. Instead they draw from a squad which contains international No 8 Tim Rodber and nine B caps.

The absence of established stars may, in the long term, prove no hindrance. For in the Borders they insist that not all those who excel at 15-a-side are suited to the abbreviated format. Scotland have selected from those who have made their mark on the end-of-season circuit.

Coached by John Jeffrey and Douglas Morgan, the Scottish squad includes only two caps, Kenny Logan and Martin Scott, both of whom earned their spurs on tour in Australia this summer.

England open against Glasgow High/Kelvinside and such is the importance attached to putting one over on the auld enemy that the club side, if they were to win, could probably declare their season a success even before it officially begins on 1 September.

SELKIRK SEVENS (first game 2pm): Peebles v Gala; England v Glasgow High/Kelvinside; Sterling Co v Hawick; Selkirk v Dundee HSFP; Kelso v Gala Star; Scotland v Jed-Forest; Northampton (holders) v Langham; Bedford v Melrose.

ENGLAND SQUAD: A Buzza (Wasps), P De Glanville (Bath), I Hunter (Northampton), D Hopley (Wasps), D Scully (Wakefield), M Strett (Orrell), J Cassell (Saracens), B Clarke (Bath), T Roder (Northampton), C Sheasby (Harlequins).

SCOTLAND SQUAD: C Glasgow (Heriot's FP), K Logan (Sterling Co), G Townsend (Gala), A Donaldson (Currie), B Redpath (Melrose), B Renwick (Hawick), M Scott (Edinburgh Acads), A Roxburgh (Kelso), K Armstrong (Jed-Forest), D Wilson (Stewart's Melville FP).