Uncapped Lamont and Morton called into Scotland squad

The Flanker Cameron Mather has been recalled to the Scotland squad for the Six Nations match against the championship leaders France at Murrayfield on 21 March after recovering from injury.

Mather hurt his ankle in last month's defeat to England and missed Scotland's 20-14 loss to Italy in Rome last Saturday. But Scotland, who have yet to win a game in the tournament, are still without loosehead prop Tom Smith, who also picked up a knock against England.

The Northampton Saints player is again replaced by Edinburgh's Allan Jacobsen in the 26-man squad. Also included are the uncapped backs Sean Lamont, who plays for Glasgow in the Celtic League and Gareth Morton, who joined Borders from Leeds Rhinos.

Lamont, 23, said: "I'm over the moon to be selected. When I joined Glasgow I was looking to try to continue my rugby career and the prospect of playing for Scotland, although an ambition I cherished, wasn't uppermost in my mind." Lamont has been chosen after some impressive performances in both attack and defence for Glasgow in their recent matches.

Meanwhile, the Scottish Rugby Union has confirmed that the national team will face Australia for a third time this year in the autumn Test series. Scotland have already lined up two Test matches against Australia in Melbourne and Sydney on 13 and 19 June, while a third game against Samoa will take place at the Westpac Stadium in Wellington, New Zealand on Friday 4 June .

But Scotland will now face the Wallabies and South Africa at Murrayfield in November after Japan open the series on the weekend of 13 and 14 November.

South of the border, the England A forward James Forrester will miss the rest of this season after being told that he needs shoulder surgery. The 23-year-old Gloucester player was hurt during England A's defeat against France A in Perpignan last Saturday.

Not only will it keep Forrester out of Gloucester's European and domestic campaign, but any hopes of challenging for an England tour place this summer have also been dashed. Forrester faces arthroscopic surgery after he dislocated his shoulder as England A lost 26-22. He will go under the surgeon's knife early next week.

"The one positive is that the damage is not as bad as was first expected, but it is still a big blow to miss James's talent for the rest of the season," Gloucester's rugby director Nigel Melville said. Forrester is one of the most highly-rated prospects in English rugby, but not for the first time, his career has now been stalled by injury.

In Dunedin, New Zealand, half-back Craig Davidson scored a last-minute try to help give Natal Sharks a 36-35 victory over the Otago Highlanders in the Super 12 yesterday. The fly-half Butch James converted the try from in front of the posts to steal the game from the home side who led 32-15 with 20 minutes to play. Davidson scored the last two of the Sharks' five tries.

On the second, he took the ball from the feet of his advancing forwards near the scoring line and crawled through to the side of the upright to score.

Last week, Davidson was sent to the sin-bin when the ACT Brumbies beat the Sharks 23-20 at Canberra in Australia.

"It's a fantastic result," said the Sharks' hooker, John Smit. "We've been working hard, and it really made it worthwhile in the last minute."