Loughborough Students scrum-half, Russell Weir has been called into the extended Scotland Sevens squad to travel to Hong Kong. Weir, 21, replaces Kerr Gossman who received an ankle ligament injury playing for Glasgow Hawks at the weekend.

Scotland 7s head coach, Graham Shiel, said: “We’re sorry to lose Kerr through injury but fortunate to be able to call on the services of Russell and to offer him an opportunity to play with the Scottish Barbarians tens team.

“He has trained with the squad this month and has impressed so far. The tens tournament will give us a chance to look more closely at his abilities and see what he can do.”

Weir has previously been involved with Scotland under-20, competing in the 2010 Junior World Championship.

Twelve of the players from the expanded squad will be involved with the official Cathay Pacific Hong Kong 7s from Friday 23 March to Sunday 25 March, with the other four joining up with leading players from Hong Kong Scottish and other Hong Kong clubs to form the Scottish Barbarians, who will compete in the GFI HKFC Tens tournament on Wednesday 21 and Thursday 22 March.

The Scotland 7s players to compete in the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong 7s (Friday 23 – Sunday 25 March) are: Hamish Watson (Edinburgh Accies), Adam Ashe (Stirling County), Mark Cairns (Currie), Michael Fedo (Team Northumbria), Ross Miller (Glasgow Hawks), Mark Robertson (Scotland 7s) Sam Hidalgo-Clyne (Heriot’s), Sean Kennedy (Stirling County), Colin Gregor (Scotland 7s), Byron McGuigan (Scotland 7s), James Fleming (Scotland 7s) and Andrew Turnbull (Scotland 7s).

The draw for the Cathay Pacific / HSBC Hong Kong Sevens is as follows:

Pool A: Samoa, England, Argentina, Kenya
Pool B: New Zealand, South Africa, Wales, United States
Pool C: Fiji, Australia, France, Scotland
Pool D: Tonga, Uruguay, Hong Kong, China
Pool E: Canada, Spain, Zimbabwe, Phillippines
Pool F: Portugal, Russia, Japan, Guyana

Scotland 7s will play Fiji on Friday 23 March at 5.06pm (local time), Australia on Saturday 24 March at 10.36 (local time) and France on the Saturday at 3.44pm (local time).

The additional 10s players to compete in the GFI HKFC Tens (Wednesday 21 and Thursday 22 March) are: Rory Hughes (Hawks), Fraser Harkness (Selkirk), Greig Ryan (Aberdeen Grammar) and Russell Weir (Loughborough Students).

Pool A: BGC Asia Pacific Barbarians, Hill & Associates Scottish Barbarians, Irish Vikings, Playmore’s Shanghai Devils
Pool B: HSBC Penguins, International Panthers, HKRFU Chairman’s X, China Agricultural University
Pool C: SRC Borneo Eagles, New Zealand Legends, Lloyd McDermott Foundation, Hong Kong Football Club
Pool D: Samurai International, Tag Heuer Eyewear Pyrenees, Australian Country Invitational, Overseas Old Boys

This article was posted on 13-Mar-2012, 21:03 by Hugh Barrow.