Singleton starts first game since heart attack as Glasgow field eight Scotland returnees

Jack Singleton will play his first game of rugby in over a year when Glasgow Warriors host the Lions at Scotstoun on Friday in the URC, with head coach Franco Smith handing the 31-year-old hooker a starting berth after his recovery from a heart attack and subsequent stent surgery.

Singleton, formerly of Gloucester and England, last played in September 2023 before the cardiac episode ended his season. Now a short-term signing at Glasgow, he has impressed Smith in training ahead of what will be a significant personal milestone.

“He’s been training so well and he’s so well prepared,” Smith said. “One of the things we want for this week is energy and enthusiasm, and he’s brought so much from that perspective.”

Glasgow will also hand debuts to 20-year-old academy prop Jake Shearer, who comes in because Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend has retained both loosehead options Rory Sutherland and Nathan McBeth ahead of next week’s November Nations Championship opener against New Zealand. McBeth has also been limited in training this week due to an arm complaint, though Smith described the issue as minor.

Despite being without 11 players retained by Townsend, Glasgow can call on eight Scotland internationals released from the national camp. Ollie Smith, Stafford McDowall, George Horne, Alex Craig, and Jamie Ritchie will all start, while Gregor Hiddleston, Max Williamson, and Seb Stephen are named among the replacements. Stephen may be used in a hybrid back-row role.

Smith is also managing a pair of hamstring concerns. Full-back Josh McKay, whose name has been linked with a Scotland call-up mid-way through the November programme, picked up a Grade 1B hamstring strain during the warm-up before last week’s win over Benetton. “I think he was over-keen and over-excited,” Smith said. “It’s also a very light strain. It’s important to keep him as fit as possible now and in the next weeks.”

New South African No.8 Ruwald van der Merwe has also sustained a hamstring strain, which Smith attributed partly to the drop in temperature from what the player would have experienced in South Africa. “I don’t want to take a risk now of having a big injury so early in the season if we do push him,” Smith said, adding that van der Merwe would likely have been available had the match been a week later.