Scotland Skipper Hogg Sends Best Wishes To Infected Women's Player

Scotland captain Stuart Hogg said on Saturday all his squad's thoughts are with the member of the country's women's side who has contracted coronavirus

Edinburgh, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 7th Mar, 2020 ) :Scotland captain Stuart Hogg said on Saturday all his squad's thoughts are with the member of the country's women's side who has contracted coronavirus.

The unnamed individual is part of the Scotland squad and her positive test for the virus caused Friday's game against France in the women's Six Nations to be called off.

"I speak for everyone involved in our squad and we send our best wishes to said player. It's a huge matter. We're sending our best wishes and we hope they make a full recovery," Hogg said ahead of Scotland's men's Six Nations match against France in Edinburgh on Sunday.

"It's a huge thing and we're in the best possible place with the help of Dr James Robson to make sure we're doing all the appropriate things. We're thinking of all the girls," he added.

- Bumping elbows - Hogg, who was named skipper before the competition, said the virus had caused his squad to change their daily routine.

"Normally we greet each other every single morning with a handshake. Whereas we've stopped that now and we're bumping elbows," he said at a Murrayfield which has been adorned with warnings on posters and anti-bacterial gel on the walls for the match "We're making sure we're doing everything we possibly can to stay safe and stay healthy," the 27-year-old added.

The Scotland women's team returned from northern Italy on February 23 after their scheduled match against Italy was postponed.

In Italy, 197 people have died from the coronavirus, making it Europe's worst affected country while Scotland has 11 cases of COVID-19.

As the men's and women's squad train in different locations they have not had any face-to-face contact with each other.

Hogg's France counterpart Charles Ollivon played down the virus fears.

"What it changes? Not that much in our preparation, but not nothing. We've had this match on our minds since the start of the week," Ollivon said.

"We prepared like the matches before. Honestly, we've been given some security advice from those in the know but for us nothing has changed," the flanker added.

- 'Fight fire with fire' - France are unbeaten going into Sunday's match and a les Bleus win would set them up for a shot at the Grand Slam when they round off their tournament at home against Ireland on February 14.

Hogg said his outfit were wary of the visitors' ability to start a game strongly after scoring tries in the opening quarter of all of their three games so far this campaign.

"The first 20 minutes will be key for us. We need to meet fire with fire and go after them," Hogg said.

"We need to front-up physically and knock them back in defence, as well as playing in the right areas in attack."