Fife and Toolis in Scotland’s training squad

Edinburgh duo Dougie Fife and Ben Toolis have been drafted into Scotland's extended training squad. Picture: Jane Barlow

The duo are injury replacements for Glasgow Warriors lock Tim Swinson and Saracens centre Duncan Taylor, both of whom require corrective surgery to ongoing ankle and shoulder complaints respectively.

Swinson and Taylor are expected to be unavailable for up to three months, which rules them out of the national team’s four warm-up games ahead of the Rugby World Cup 2015. Scotland’s first game in the tournament is on23 September against Japan in Gloucester.

Taylor played in his club’s Aviva Premiership final win over Bath last month and his loss from the squad continues Scotland’s bad luck with centres. Alex Dunbar, Mark Bennett and Matt Scott are also currently injured and battling to regain fitness for the World Cup.

Fife, 24, who has scored 16 tries in 64 games for his club, earned three of his six Scotland caps in the 2015 RBS Six Nations, scoring the only try in the team’s 15-8 loss to France in Paris on the opening weekend. He is primarily a winger but can also play centre.

Australia-born lock Toolis, 23, earned his first cap as a replacement in the same campaign after a breakthrough season for the capital club, starting 20 from 22 matches and scoring his first try in the side’s European Challenge Cup semi-final win over Dragons.