Peter Jackson: Nobody plays the repatriation game quite like the Scots

A genealogist who knows his rugby is rapidly becoming more important in terms of long-term planning than any coach whatever his or her speciality.

Scotland's Richie Gray during a team run at the Principality Stadium, Cardiff. Photo credit: David Davies/PA Wire.

THE starting grid for this year’s Six Nations includes a phalanx of new converts to an old cause, none more colourful than the cage fighter-cum-martial arts champion claimed by England.

Ethan Roots, best remembered in his native New Zealand as a fearsome exponent of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, is on track to complete a quantum jump with a difference: out of the Maori squad into England’s in one fell swoop.