Mark Cairns gets the call for Scotland 7s

Cairns, who represented the side in last season’s Wellington and Las Vegas tournaments, will make his Dubai Sevens debut this Friday in place of the injured Struan Dewar, who has returned home. Shiel confirmed: “Struan had been working hard to recover from a hamstring injury and had made good progress prior to travelling. Unfortunately, he aggravated his hamstring in game three of day one in Australia and, due to the tight timings involved, it was in the best interests of Struan and the squad for him to return home and recover fully from the injury.

“Mark Cairns, who is one of our sportscotland-supported sevens athletes, has joined the squad in Dubai as Struan’s replacement. He’s been allowed to do this with the backing of his employers (George Watson’s College) and his club Currie RFC. Mark will remain with the squad for the tournaments in Dubai and South Africa.”

Scotland Sevens will open day one of the Dubai leg against Wales, who edged them in last weekend’s Gold Coast Sevens 14-12, before completing the day one pool against Australia and Canada.

Shiel added: “This group is tough but it’s a great opportunity and challenge for our players to compete against some of the best teams in the series and beat them.

Scotland squad: A Ashe, S Hidalgo-Clyne, M Cairns, J Eddie, M Fedo, J Fleming, C Gregor, P Horne, K Gossman, R Miller, S Riddell, A Turnbull.