Ally Hogg, the 48-times capped Scotland international, will lead the Scotland 'A' team in their first match of the IRB Nations Cup against Georgia tomorrow night (Friday 11 June, kick-off 7pm local time/5pm BST).
Four players uncapped at 'A' level (Alex Blair, Jack Cuthbert, Colin Shaw and Steven Turnbull) have been named in the starting XV with a further three (Chris Fusaro, Fraser McKenzie and Bryan Rennie) named on the bench.
Despite having such a youthful squad, Hogg, who is bound for Newcastle on his return from the tour, believes those assembled in Bucharest can achieve the same success as their predecessors last year.
He said: "We're looking forward to defending the Nations Cup from last year. We've got a young squad, some of whom haven't experienced professional rugby yet, but hopefully this can help develop them for the future.
"It's a real challenge playing in the heat and with such a short turnaround between matches but we're all excited about the tournament."
The 'A' team is being coached by Sean Lineen alongside his assistants in Nick Scrivener and Stevie Scott. As head of the coaching team, Lineen says he is delighted to have overseen a positive first few days in the Romanian capital.
"It's been a very good week so far and the squad has settled in well," he said.
"We have trained as hard as the weather will allow us. We are training late in the afternoon but it's still around 29 degrees at that time of day.
"Although Ally Hogg is captain, we have a really good leadership group with the likes of Greig Laidlaw, Mark McMillan, Rob Dewey, Fergus Thomson and Bruce Douglas. These guys have really come to the fore and have made sure that the players are focussed on the job in hand which is to win the IRB Nations Cup."
Scotland's first opponents in the three-game tournament, Georgia, feature in their pool at the Rugby World Cup next year and Lineen admits that there is an extra incentive for the players, and management, as they seek to fill the homework jotter in addition to getting a result.
"We've got a good team spirit and a solid understanding of how we have to play," Lineen continued.
"The Georgians are big lads so we're going to have to move them about a bit, especially in this heat.
"There is a little edge to the Georgia game because they are in Scotland's pool at the Rugby World Cup next year so we will be looking to try a few things out."

Scotland 'A' team (sponsor Murray) to play Georgia in the IRB Nations Cup at the Stadionul National Arcul de Triumf (kick-off 7pm local time, 5pm BST)
15 Jack Cuthbert (Bath)
14 Colin Shaw (Scotland 7s)
13 John Houston (Edinburgh)
12 Rob Dewey (Glasgow Warriors)
11 Mark Robertson (Edinburgh)
10 Alex Blair (Edinburgh)
9 Greig Laidlaw (Edinburgh)
1 Ed Kalman (Glasgow Warriors)
2 Fergus Thomson (Glasgow Warriors)
3 Bruce Douglas (Montpellier)
4 Steven Turnbull (Edinburgh)
5 James Eddie (Glasgow Warriors)
6 Scott Newlands (Edinburgh)
7 Roddy Grant (Edinburgh)
8 Ally Hogg (Edinburgh) CAPTAIN
Substitutes
16 Andrew Kelly (Edinburgh)
17 David Young (Edinburgh)
18 Fraser McKenzie (Edinburgh)
19 Chris Fusaro (Heriot's)*
20 Mark McMillan (Glasgow Warriors)
21 David Blair (Edinburgh)
22 Bryan Rennie (Exeter Chiefs)

This article was posted on 10-Jun-2010, 22:20 by Hugh Barrow.