Henry Pyrgos to captain Scotland for Rugby World Cup warm-up against Ireland

Glasgow Warriors scrum-half Henry Pyrgos will captain Scotland in their first World Cup warm-up match against Ireland at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday.

“As a scrum-half, you have quite a big influence in the way the team plays in defence and attack”.

And Pyrgos is relishing the chance to boost his own chances of a call up to the final 31-man World Cup squad alongside leading his country for the first time.

And the Kiwi’s experimental side will face a baptism of fire in Dublin against an increasingly buoyant Ireland.

Scotland open their World Cup campaign against Japan before taking on USA in Leeds.

The World Cup is a step closer!

“Physically we’ll be working very hard to find peak form”.

Cotter will trim his 47-man training squad down to a final list of 31 players for the tournament on September 2.

Cotter has included four uncapped players in his squad, with New Zealand born flanker Hugh Blake, english prop Mike Cusack and South African Allan Bell all included, as well as young hooker Stuart McInally.

Along with Pyrgos, Cotter has named Dougie Fife, Sam Hidalgo-Clyne, Peter Horne, Ruaridh Jackson, Sean Lamont, Tommy Seymor, Greig Tonks, Richie Vernon, Tim Visser and Duncan Weir as his backs, while John Barclay, Hugh Blake, Fraser Brown, Blair Cowan, Mike Cusack, David Denton, Allan Dell, Grant Gilchrist, Ryan Grant, Jim Hamilton, Rob Harley, Stuart McInally, Gordon Reid and Jon Welsh make up the forwards.

The 22 players not involved against Ireland on Saturday will continue training at Murrayfield.