Scotland rugby coach Matt Williams is "extremely sad" that he will be left without nine of his England-based players for the first of the Autumn Tests against Australia at Murrayfield.

The Scots take on the Aussies in Edinburgh on November 6 followed by games on consecutive Saturdays against Japan at McDiarmid Park, Australia again at Hampden and South Africa at Murrayfield.

The first match, however, scheduled as a celebration of the new Scottish Parliament, falls outside the window set aside by the International Rugby Board for Tests and consequently Premiership sides such as Leeds Tykes, Newcastle Falcons, Northampton Saints, Sale Sharks and Worcester have refused to release their Scottish players.

Williams will be missing experienced men such as Stuart Grimes, Tom Smith and Jason White but the unhappy Scots coach tried to put a positive spin on the situation.

"It's an extremely sad day for me and I can't understand that type of thinking," he said.

"As a rugby man it's hugely disappointing that people wouldn't allow those players a chance to play for their country.

"We knew the game was outside of the window but we hoped that the value placed on long-term club servants gaining an international cap would have prevailed but they are not going to.

"How can you rob any player of the opportunity to play for their country?

"But there's two ways of looking at it. The players that we've picked are all knocking on the door and I think it's a really healthy thing because there's not a lot between them.

"So I don't want to dwell on it because people might think we're somehow putting put a team who are sub-standard and that's not the case.

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