Three Glasgow Hawks will start for Scotland A against the New Zealand Maori in the final of the Barclays Churchill Cup in Edmonton on Saturday.

Graeme Morrison, Rory Lamont, Fergus Thomson and Craig Hamilton start, while their Glasgow colleague Colin Gregor looks set for a place on the bench.

The New Zealand Maori, who beat England in the final two years ago, will face the same backline that the Scots fielded against the Auld Enemy in their first victory of this year's competition.

The Scots now look ahead to this Saturday's final after beating reigning champions England A and a powerful Canadian side in Ottawa in the space of four days to make an impact in their first appearance in the Barclays Churchill Cup.

Speaking today from Edmonton, head coach Steve Bates said: "We've watched the New Zealand Maori play and we know a few of their players so we are aware of the scale of the challenge we face on Saturday.

"The lads have done themselves proud to get to the final. We have prepared well and we give it our best. We just have to make sure that we done get overawed by the experience because as we have seen so far in this tournament, anything can happen."

"We need to match them up front - they are quite a physical bunch of guys," said Glasgow lock Craig Hamilton. "They play great expansive rugby. Against England and Canada our defense was pretty solid so if we can keep our defense and our attack is getting better - each game we are getting better and better on attack. We'll finish off more chances hopefully this time and it should be a real good game."

Prop Alasdair Dickinson moves to tighthead to replace Biarritz's Colin Noon as he continues to receive treatment on an ankle injury with a view to having him fit for the final.

In the back division, Edinburgh Gunners Matt Dey centre teams up with Graeme Morrison.

Glasgow team-mate Rory Lamont also returns to the starting XV as he takes his place on the left wing moving Nikki Walker to the bench.

Scotland A team to play the New Zealand Maori in the Barclays Churchill Cup Final at the Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Canada, on Saturday 17 June (kick-off 2:30pm local time, 9:30pm BST)

15 Calum MacRae (Border Reivers) *

14 Simon Danielli (Border Reivers)
13 Graeme Morrison (Glasgow Warriors/Hawks)
12 Matt Dey Edinburgh Gunners)
11 Rory Lamont (Glasgow Warriors/Hawks)

10 Phil Godman (Edinburgh Gunners)
9 Rory Lawson (Edinburgh Gunners) * CAPTAIN

1 Allan Jacobsen (Edinburgh Gunners)
2 Fergus Thomson (Glasgow Warriors/Hawks) *
3 Alasdair Dickinson (Edinburgh Gunners) *
4 Craig Hamilton (Glasgow Warriors)
5 Mark Rennie (Lyon)
6 Ross Beattie (Northampton Saints)
7 Alasdair Strokosch (Edinburgh Gunners) *
8 David Callam (Edinburgh Gunners) *

Substitutes from: Colin Noon (Biarritz), Tommy McGee (Border Reivers), Andy Hall (Newport-Gwent Dragons), Scott Gray (Border Reivers), Andrew Kelly (Edinburgh Gunners) *, Andy Miller (Border Reivers), Nick De Luca (Edinburgh Gunners) *, Nikki Walker (Border Reivers), Colin Gregor (Glasgow Warriors) *

This article was posted on 15-Jun-2006, 18:08 by Hugh Barrow.