Scotland drop seven players ahead of World Cup

Scotland head coach Vern Cotter has released seven players from his World Cup training squad on the back of Saturday’s 16-12 win in Italy.
The players returning to their clubs are Glasgow Warriors’ pair Mike Cusack and Rory Hughes and the Edinburgh quintet of Allan Dell, Dougie Fife, Damien Hoyland, Ben Toolis and Hamish Watson.
Cotter also confirmed that back-row Josh Strauss has returned to Glasgow Warriors with the view to getting game time, before being considered for the final 31-man group.
“I’d like to thank the players for all their hard work throughout what has been a very tough pre-season campaign,” said Cotter.
“Their commitment to improving as individuals and to our collective endeavor has been exceptional, and has made this a very tough decision.
“They are understandably disappointed to miss out at this stage, however they have done themselves proud with their performances in training and the two Test matches.
“The nature of Test rugby is that we may need to call upon any of these players at any given time during our journey to and through what will be a very tough Rugby World Cup campaign, so we’ll continue to monitor their performances at club level very closely.”