Cotter defends decision to give call to New Zealand-born Blake

Scotland coach Vern Cotter has defended his decision to call up New Zealand-born flanker Hugh Blake for his RBS 6 Nations squad.

The Edinburgh loose forward is one of four uncapped players from the capital club to be named in Cotter’s 32-man squad ahead of next month’s championship opener in Paris.

But the highly-rated 22-year-old only moved to Scotland last month on a six-month deal and has yet to appear for the Gunners.

He could join Blair Cowan, another Kiwi now playing for the Scots, and Zimbabwe-born David Denton in a back-row combination forged in the southern hemisphere. But Cotter insists the former All Black youngster — who qualifies for his side thanks to his Scottish grandparents — will wear the Dark Blue jersey with pride.

Cotter said: “We have to be open-minded. Hugh’s got Scottish ancestry and he is very proud of it. He’s a brave man, he could have stayed in New Zealand in a secure and comfortable environment. He challenged himself to come over here and that type of thing I respect.

“Hugh offers us a profile that we don’t have. He brings that specialist seven role over from New Zealand and an ability to change games. He’s played against Richie McCaw and the best players in the world – and he’s available for Scotland.”

Blake is joined in the squad by three Murrayfield team-mates — scrum-half Sam Hidalgo-Clyne and forwards Ben Toolis and Hamish Watson.

But he is included at the expense of former skipper Kelly Brown and John Barclay, who has been impressing for Welsh side Scarlets.

SCOTLAND: SIX NATIONS SQUAD

Backs: M Bennett (Glasgow Warriors), S Hidalgo-Clyne (Edinburgh) , A Dunbar, (Glasgow Warriors) D Fife (Edinburgh) , S Hogg, P Horne (both Glasgow Warriors) G Laidlaw (Gloucester), S Lamont, S Maitland, H Pyrgos, F Russell (all Glasgow Warriors), M Scott (Edinburgh) , T Seymour (Glasgow Warriors), G Tonks, T Visser (both Edinburgh) .

Forwards: H Blake (Edinburgh) , F Brown (Glasgow Warriors), B Cowan, G Cross (both London Irish), D Denton, A Dickinson (Edinburgh) , J Gray (Glasgow Warriors), R Gray (Castres), R Ford (Edinburgh) , J Hamilton (Saracens), R Harley, E Murray, G Reid (all Glasgow Warriors), A Strokosch (Perpignan), B Toolis, H Watson (both Edinburgh) , J Welsh (Glasgow Warriors).