Blair lifts the Calcutta Cup after victory over England in March this year © Getty Images

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Blair retains Scotland captaincy

Players/Officials Mike Blair

Teams Scotland

Mike Blair is determined to lead Scotland to greater success after retaining the captaincy for next month's autumn internationals.

The Edinburgh scrum-half held on to the armband after skippering his country to Calcutta Cup victory over England earlier this year as well as their first Test win in Argentina in the summer. Blair, 27, will lead Scotland out at Murrayfield against New Zealand on November 8 and South Africa a week later, as well as against Canada in Aberdeen the following Saturday.

"I'm really pleased. Frank's put a big vote of confidence in me to do the job," said Blair, who is also captain of Edinburgh. "Having experienced it in the Six Nations and tour to Argentina, it's something I'm really looking forward to doing. I've enjoyed doing it with Edinburgh again this year and ahead of the autumn internationals, it's a big month for me and for the rest of the guys."

Blair, who has skippered Scotland on five occasions, added: "It's a tremendous privilege to captain your country and I know from the first time I had that honour at Murrayfield earlier this year that the crowd can inspire us. Against England, when we had to dig that little bit deeper, the supporters were fantastic and it would be great if we could enjoy that level of vocal encouragement against the All Blacks, Springboks and Canada next month."

Head coach Frank Hadden insisted he had no hesitation in extending Blair's tenure, revealing previous skipper Jason White had not played enough rugby since recovering from his latest injury.

"We're getting close to a final decision next week for the squad for preparation for the autumn Tests," Hadden said. "But the first decision that we made didn't take very long and that was to decide that Mike Blair was going to be our captain for the forthcoming series.

"Mike has a lot of experience now as a player, which is why he was selected in the first place. But he now also has significant experience as a captain and we're delighted with the way in which he's captained the side over the last wee while and we're obviously delighted to announce that he will continue in that role throughout November."

However, Hadden insisted White would be give the chance to reclaim the armband at a future date.

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