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Scotland will be boosted by the return of some key players ahead of the last two legs of the IRB Sevens World Series at London and Edinburgh.

Coach Stephen Gemmell welcomes eight players in the squad who made an impact at the back-end of last year’s Series, where the Scots reached two Cup semi-finals.

"It's hugely exciting for me to get a squad like this together," said Gemmell.

"We've gone for as strong a squad as we can get which is traditionally what we have done in London and Edinburgh.”

Six players named today have been drafted from the Edinburgh professional team whilst all three fulltime sevens exponents (Shaw, Adamson, Forrest).

The likes of Ally Hogg and Roddy Grant are particular coups for Gemmell, whose side have really struggled for form this season and are yet to pick up any IRB points.

"What is really pleasing for me as a coach is that every player here is desperate to be involved - they're all keen to play for Scotland."

"Our challenge over the next two weeks is to get these guys up to speed with sevens and put on a performance firstly they can be proud of and then something the public can get behind.

"The standard has moved on since last year. We have to look forward and develop our game at a speed that not only we can be competitive in London, which is our first challenge, but move on from that.

"When we get back to Murrayfield - which is always massively important for anyone involved in Scotland 7s - we want to be hitting the ground running so we are in a position to achieve something special." 
 

Scotland Squad for London and Edinburgh:

Scott Forrest (Captain)*, Mike Adamson*, Alex Blair (Edinburgh Accies)**, Chris Fusaro (Heriot's)**, Roddy Grant (Edinburgh), Ally Hogg (Edinburgh), John Houston (Edinburgh), Lee Jones (Selkirk)**, Greig Laidlaw (Edinburgh), Mark Robertson (Edinburgh), Colin Shaw*, Andrew Turnbull (Edinburgh).

 * = Scotland 7s contracted player
** = Member of Scottish Rugby's National Academy