GREIG Laidlaw has taken Scotland’s Lions representation to three, joining Stuart Hogg and Tommy Seymour on the tour to New Zealand after England scrum-half Ben Youngs withdrew for family reasons.
The 31-year-old’s hopes of being part of head coach Warren Gatland’s original selection were probably ended by the injury he sustained while captaining Scotland against France three months ago. Laidlaw missed the rest of the Six Nations Championship, but is now back playing, and is expected to turn out for Gloucester in Friday night’s European Challenge Cup final against Stade Francais at Murrayfield.
Gatland, whose original 41-man squad for the three-Test series against the All Blacks consisted of 16 Englishmen, 12 Welshmen and 11 Irishmen as well as the two Scots, is now awaiting an update on Ospreys stand-off Dan Biggar, who injured an ankle in his team’s loss to Scarlets on Saturday. Scotland fly-half Finn Russell is expected to have a good chance of being added to the party should Biggar be ruled out.
“We will assess him over the next 24 hours,” Ospreys head coach Steve Tandy said of Biggar. “It was something to do with his ankle - we have just got to dig into it in a bit more detail.”
Youngs chose to withdraw from the tour after the wife of his brother Tom found out she has terminal cancer. “We are a very close family and, as I am sure everyone can respect, time is now precious together,” he said. “The most important thing for me at this difficult time is to be able to offer as much support as I can to Tom and his family in the remaining time we all have together.”
The Youngs brothers have played together for England, and were team-mates on Saturday as their club, Leicester, beat Worcester. Tom, a hooker, and at 30 three years older than Ben, scored a try in the Tigers’ 28-23 win.
“We fully understand and respect Ben's decision to stay at home,” Gatland said. “Family comes first, and I know from having toured with Tom and Ben in 2013 [on the Lions tour to Australia] how close they are. This is a difficult and important time for them and we send Ben, Tom and their family our heartfelt thoughts.”
Ben played in two Lions Tests against the Wallabies in 2013, while Tom played in one. Conor Murray of Ireland and Rhys Webb of Wales are the other scrum-halves in the squad.
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