Scotland name World Cup squad

Head Coach Vern Cotter today named scrum-half Greig Laidlaw as captain of the 31-man squad for the World Cup.
The squad a balance of 17 forwards and 14 backs, with Alasdair Dickinson, Ross Ford and Sean Lamont all set for their third World Cup.
Richie Gray, Alasdair Strokosch and Richie Vernon are the other survivor from the 2011 campaign with Vernon becoming the first Scottish player to be selected as both a forward and a back, adding to his 2011 appearance as a No.8.
Scotland face France in this Saturday in the final preparatory match before the , where they are drawn against , , South Africa and in Pool B.
Cotter said: “We're very pleased to name the 31 and we're confident these players will represent Scotland well in the Rugby World Cup.
“It's been a tough but rewarding two months. We're proud of the effort everyone has put in to this point.
“Getting down to 31 has been a difficult process because all the players have represented themselves well in the opportunities given.
“There are some good players and good people who haven't made it. We obviously feel for them and would like to thank them for all their efforts, however we must now move forward to our last preparation match against France before embarking on our Rugby World Cup campaign.
“We felt the split of 17 forwards and 14 backs gives us the best balance.
“We have two games in four days followed by South Africa and Samoa, so we need to be robust and covered in both forwards and backs, while knowing we have players in the group who can play several positions.
“We'll now concentrate our efforts on this group to fine tune a couple of things in detail.
“There are fine margins in this sport at this level so we have to make sure we have got everything ticked off as best as possible, through our organisation, our work-rate and a raft of other details that we'll work through methodically.
“We know the Rugby World Cup is not far away, and we're very excited about the event, for which we're working very hard to perform, do well and represent the thistle on the world stage.”
Scotland squad:
Props
Alasdair Dickinson (); 46 caps
Ryan Grant (Glasgow); 23 caps
Gordon Reid (Glasgow); 11 caps
Willem Nel (Edinburgh); 2 caps
Jon Welsh (); 6 caps
Hookers
Fraser Brown (Glasgow); 9 caps
Ross Ford (Edinburgh); 88 caps
Stuart McInally (Edinburgh); 2 caps
Second-row
Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh); 10 caps
Jonny Gray (Glasgow); 14 caps
Richie Gray (Castres); 45 caps
Tim Swinson (Glasgow); 12 caps
Back-row
David Denton (Edinburgh); 27 caps
John Hardie (Unattached); 1 cap
Josh Strauss (Glasgow); uncapped
Alasdair Strokosch (Perpignan); 45 caps
Ryan Wilson (Glasgow); 10 caps
Scrum-half
Sam Hidalgo-Clyne (Edinburgh); 7 caps
Greig Laidlaw (Gloucester, Capt.); 40 caps
Henry Pyrgos (Glasgow); 16 caps
Stand-off
Finn Russell (Glasgow); 10 caps
Duncan Weir (Glasgow); 19 caps
Centre
Mark Bennett (Glasgow); 8 caps
Peter Horne (Glasgow); 10 caps
Matt Scott (Edinburgh); 28 caps
Richie Vernon (Glasgow); 22 caps
Wing
Sean Lamont (Glasgow); 96 caps
Sean Maitland (); 15 caps
Tommy Seymour (Glasgow); 17 caps
Tim Visser (Harlequins); 20 caps
Full-back
Stuart Hogg (Glasgow); 33 caps

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