Scotland get major fitness boost ahead of clash with England

WP Nel and Zander Fagerson have returned to training in a boost to Scotland’s front-row options.

Scotland’s preparations for the Natwest 6 Nations were hit by the absence of the duo, with Nel suffering a broken arm against Samoa in November and Fagerson injuring his foot last month.

Gregor Townsend’s men started their campaign with a demoralising defeat in Wales, before rebounding with victory against France on home soil.

Both men took part in an open training session in Galashiels on Friday, though, and they may come into contention for the crunch Calcutta Cup clash with England on February 24.

“[WP Nel] trained with us on Wednesday, we’re just having a look,” Townsend explained.

“I think when he played against Italy in the summer he’d had one game in a similar period, three, four months out, and he did pretty well in that game against Italy.

“The positive thing is that he has been passed medically. He is training very hard. He had an upper limb injury – a broken arm – so he has been able to keep his fitness up so we’ll just see how he is in the next two, three days with us.

“Zander came in today largely because Glasgow Warriors are away playing today and so are Edinburgh. We’ll see how they get on this week and potentially next week we’ll be able to make a call on when they are available or it might be after the England game.

“Obviously this is Zander’s first session with us. He only resumed training this week. WP has been training for a couple of weeks now but we need to get a good look at them and see how they react but it will be next week that we will have a clearer picture.”

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