Cusiter continues in Borders lineup

"Chris wanted to play so we were able to accommodate him" said head coach Steve Bates.

Cusiter and Scott Gray are the only Scotland squad players from The Borders to be named in the starting team for Friday's Euro game. Bates is resting Bruce Douglas, and has given bench places to Ross Ford, Stuart Moffat and Scott MacLeod.

Simon Danielli, meanwhile, was not considered for selection because of an aggravated tendon at the back of his knee. Danielli is one of a number of Borders players suffering from niggling injuries, caused in Bates' view, by the soggy conditions that have prevailed recently.

Another to miss the match is Jon Steel , who is not fully recovered from a hamstring strain, the same problem that is affecting Ally Dickson, while Stephen Cranston picked up a knee injury last weekend, Joe Pattison a dead leg playing against Newcastle Falcons Academy on Monday night and Andy Rennick a back problem.

Looking ahead to the second leg match in which The Borders are defending a 98-3 lead from last weekend Bates admitted that the priorities would change.

"We're going to try a lot of different things tactically. We want to try different styles of attacking and give the players something positve to strive for. I just hope that the weather is reasonable so that we can do different things" said Bates.

While the team selection was part determined by the injury list, Bates admitted that it was also a lot to do with looking ahead to next month when there were likely to be players involved with Scotland.

"We looked specifically at certain personnel and at certain combinations. The front row for example illustrates that point" added Bates.