Blair Cowan And John Barclay Miss Out On Scotland Rugby World Cup Squad
Vern Cotter has confirmed neither Blair Cowan or John Barclay will live out their World Cup dream after controversially axing both from his 31-man squad.
Reports on Tuesday morning suggested the back-row pair had failed to make the cut for the tournament which kicks-off next month in England and the Dark Blues confirmed the news as Cotter unveiled his squad at Edinburgh University's Old College Quad.
Cowan's omission in particular is a major surprise after the New Zealand-born London Irish forward started all five of the Scot's matches in this year's RBS 6 Nations.
Barlcay, meanwhile ended a near-two year exile from the squad when he was recalled for the warm-up clashes with Ireland and Italy.
But despite scoring in Saturday's 48-7 romp at Murrayfield over the Azzurri, the on-form Scarlets number seven has also been left out of Cotter's travelling party.
Gloucester scrum-half Greig Laidlaw will continue to skipper the side.
To add further controversy to that decision, the man benefiting from Cotter's decision was John Hardie - who only arrived in Scotland five weeks ago from New Zealand and has played just 57 minutes of international rugby after making his debut in Turin last week.
Josh Strauss is also included, despite the fact the Glasgow number eight - born in South Africa - only qualifies for Scotland through residency rules five days before his adopted nation's first match against Japan in Gloucester on September 23.
Squad in full: PROPS Alasdair Dickinson (Edinburgh Rugby); 46 caps; 4 RWC appearances (2007 & 2011) Ryan Grant (Glasgow Warriors); 23 caps Gordon Reid (Glasgow Warriors); 11 caps Willem Nel (Edinburgh Rugby); 2 caps Jon Welsh (Newcastle Falcons); 6 caps HOOKERS Fraser Brown (Glasgow Warriors); 9 caps Ross Ford (Edinburgh Rugby); 88 caps, 8 RWC appearances (2007 & 2011) Stuart McInally (Edinburgh Rugby); 2 caps SECOND-ROW Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh Rugby); 10 caps Jonny Gray (Glasgow Warriors); 14 caps Richie Gray (Castres); 45 caps; 4 RWC appearances (2011) Tim Swinson (Glasgow Warriors); 12 caps BACK-ROW David Denton (Edinburgh Rugby); 27 caps John Hardie (Unattached); 1 cap Josh Strauss (Glasgow Warriors); uncapped Alasdair Strokosch (Perpignan); 45 caps; 3 RWC appearances (2011) Ryan Wilson (Glasgow Warriors); 10 caps SCRUM-HALF Sam Hidalgo-Clyne (Edinburgh Rugby); 7 caps Greig Laidlaw CAPTAIN (Gloucester); 40 caps Henry Pyrgos (Glasgow Warriors); 16 caps STAND-OFF Finn Russell (Glasgow Warriors); 10 caps Duncan Weir (Glasgow Warriors); 19 caps CENTRE Mark Bennett (Glasgow Warriors); 8 caps Peter Horne (Glasgow Warriors); 10 caps Matt Scott (Edinburgh Rugby); 28 caps Richie Vernon (Glasgow Warriors); 22 caps, 3 RWC appearances (2011) WING Sean Lamont (Glasgow Warriors); 96 caps, 8 RWC appearances (2007 & 2011) Sean Maitland (London Irish); 15 caps Tommy Seymour (Glasgow Warriors); 17 caps Tim Visser (Harlequins); 20 caps FULL-BACK Stuart Hogg (Glasgow Warriors); 33 caps