Scotland drop veteran forward Murray after French failure

Scotland have dropped Scott Murray, their highly rated and vastly experienced lock, after their heavy Six Nations' Championship defeat in France last week.

The Lion, capped 44 times for his country, has long been regarded as one of the best line-out jumpers in British rugby, but a recent loss of form has contributed to Scotland's poor showing in the line-out in their two Six Nations defeats so far this season.

"Scott by his high standards had a below-par game in Paris," said the Scotland coach, Ian McGeechan, by way of explanation for the Edinburgh second-row forward's absence from the squad that has been chosen to prepare for the Six Nations match against Wales at Murrayfield on 8 March. "But he is still very important to our squad. He is still world-class in things like his line-out work and we'll try to get him back to the form he was showing in the Autumn Tests."

The hooker Steve Scott, who was on the bench against France, is also dropped, while Brendan Laney, who played at outside-half in Paris, is another who did not make it into the squad but for a different reason.

Laney was unable to take up the kicking duties in the 38-3 defeat last weekend because of injury. McGeechan, who has started with three different fly-halves this season, said: "Brendan had a leg injury which hampered his performance against France. It's a kicking injury and he's in for a scan which has shown some substantial damage."

The Bordeaux-Bègles centre James McLaren, who has won 20 Scotland caps, has been called in for the New Zealand-born Laney and should bring a physical presence to the midfield, while McGeechan has brought in the Australian-born Nathan Hines, a former rugby league player, to replace Murray.

Wales were given some cheering news yesterday. The Llanelli fly-half Stephen Jones is poised to resume training after having the plaster removed from his broken thumb on Wednesday. He has joined up with the Wales squad, but his Scarlets club colleague Mark Jones, who missed the England game last weekend, will also miss the Murrayfield match because he has been confirmed as suffering from concussion.

Another Scotland player in the news and out of a side is Mattie Stewart, the Northampton prop. Although the Saints head coach, Wayne Smith, has delayed naming his line-up for the Powergen Cup semi-final tie against London Irish on Sunday, he could find no room for Stewart in his 27-man squad.

Harlequins have signed the Newport prop Ceri Jones on loan until the end of this season. The Londoners, already without the England front-row forward Jason Leonard because of hamstring trouble, were dealt another blow during training yesterday when the prop Bruce Starr fractured an elbow. He is expected to be out of action for between six and eight weeks.