Maitland, Taylor and Tompkins in Six Nations squads

Three Saracens players have been included in the first Six Nations squad announcements.

Sean Maitland and Duncan Taylor feature in Scotland’s 35-man list while Nick Tompkins has been picked by Wales.

New Zealand-born Maitland, who qualifies for Gregor Townsend’s side through his grandparents, made his 50^th international appearance on his last outing and has scored 15 tries while Taylor has 17 points from 28 caps.

Scotland head coach Townsend said: “As coaches we have selected a group which we believe can build on the work our players put in throughout the recent Autumn Nations Cup campaign and kick on again in terms of performance levels.

The trio have 86 international caps between them.

“The depth we have across the squad enables us to bring in some new players who have excelled in recent weeks and others who we believe can perform at Test level. Our tournament gets off to a fantastic start with a fixture we look forward to every year against England and the opportunity to win back the Calcutta Cup at Twickenham.

“We are very aware how different this year’s competition will be due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but it also provides a huge amount of positivity and enjoyment for millions of supporters and we are looking forward to contesting every match and giving this championship our very best.”

Meanwhile, Tompkins first played for Wales in last year’s tournament, scoring against Italy on debut. The centre, on loan at the Dragons, has started six of his eight caps.

“We are hugely looking forward to meeting up as a squad on Monday and to the forthcoming campaign,” said Wales head coach Wayne Pivac.

“The Guinness Six Nations is an important tournament and we have selected a squad accordingly.

“As we consistently spoke about, the autumn for us was about opportunity and development, looking ahead to RWC 2023 and it served that purpose for us.

“This campaign is different, it is tournament rugby and we are excited to get going and to play our part.

“We have picked a squad for this tournament based on form and we are excited to meet up on Monday and to get our preparation underway.”