THREE Borderers, Stuart Hogg, Rory Sutherland and Darcy Graham have all been named in Scotland’s national rugby squad for their upcoming autumn test series.

Full-back Hogg (29) who currently plays for Exeter Chiefs retains the captaincy and he is joined in the squad by fellow British and Irish Lion prop Sutherland (29) of Worcester Warriors and former Hawick player Graham (24) who currently plays for Edinburgh.

The autumn series starts with a game against Tonga at BT Murrayfield next Saturday, (October 30) and continues with sell-out matches against Australia on Sunday, November 7, and South Africa on Saturday, November 13.

The series concludes against Japan on Saturday, November 20.

Ex Gala star and current Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend has the luxury of selecting eight members of the Lions squad that toured South Africa earlier this year. In addition to Hogg and Sutherland he has picked half-backs Finn Russell and Ali Price, centre Chris Harris, winger Duhan van de Merwe, flanker Hamish Watson and prop Zander Fagerson.

He has also selected 12 uncapped players in the squad, Ewan Ashman, Josh Bayliss, Rory Darge, Dylan Richardson, Luke Crosbie, Jamie Hodgson, Marshall Sykes, Pierre Schoeman, Rufus McLean, Jamie Dobie, Ross Thompson and Sione Tuipulotu.

“It’s exciting to bring together a blend of highly-experienced and uncapped players for our first week of the autumn nations series campaign,” said Townsend.

“There have been some notable performances from both our home-based players and those at clubs outside of Scotland, which has enabled us as coaches to select a group which are playing well and will be motivated across the four games.

“We also feel that this the right time to bring in some younger players, given their early season form. They have created opportunities for themselves to represent their country and we believe that they will thrive in the Test match environment.

“We face four tough matches in four weeks and Tonga, Australia, South Africa and Japan each present a different challenge and an opportunity to perform in front of our people at Murrayfield.

“It’s great to hear that we will now play Australia in front of a capacity crowd at BT Murrayfield, and it means a huge amount to the players to have this level of support.”