Australia captain Harry Wilson is backing Harry Potter, who has been getting  loads of good-natured ribbing from Scotland fans and his own team-mates over his name, to make his international debut against Scotland one to remember. 
 
They have been on the wingers case from the moment that Australia head coach Joe Schmidt announced he would be making his first international appearance at Murrayfield- just over a mile from where Harry Potter author J K Rowling lives. 
 
The Australians are staying in a city-centre hotel near a Harry Potter shop and the cafe where she reputedly wrote parts of her novel so there is no escape from his fictional namesake for the Australia winger. 
 
There is even the chance that the woman who created the character Harry Potter could be at Murrayfield to watch Harry Potter the rugby player make his debut as she is an avid Scotland rugby fan and has been at many games before. She even named a character in one of her short stories Jim Hamilton after the Scotland second row. 
 
Potter was born in London in December, 1997- six months after the first Harry Potter novel was published with his family moving to Melbourne when he was ten. 

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After failing to make the grade in Australia the man who was named after the boy wizard moved to England where he was part of the Leicester Tigers side that won the 2022 Premiership before he moved back to join Western Force to improve his international chances. 
 
“It’s pretty cool that Harry is debuting in the home of Harry Potter, where it all began, and we have all been mentioning it to him since he was selected,” said Wilson with a mischievous grin on his face. 
 
“I think he grows a bit tired of all the Harry Potter jokes and when he got announced in the team there were a fair few jokes online and stuff, which I think he’s heard a million times.” 
 
Scotland may have top class wingers Duhan van der Merwe and Darcy Graham starting but Wilson is confident their new boy Potter can conjure up some on field wizardry to upstage them. 
 
“Harry has worked really hard since he came into camp,”said the Australian skipper. “He had an injury hit season with Western Force but he came back and played for them in their games in South Africa and that would have given him a lot of confidence. 
 
“The way he has performed in the squad in training has been impressive and we are excited for him. He has flair and a good skills set on the wing and we are backing him to do well against Scotland.” 
 
Confidence is high in the Australia camp that they can beat Scotland despite the snow affecting their training plans. 
 
They had hoped to go for a captains run at the Edinburgh University playing fields at ten-thirty yesterday (Saturday)  but had to abandon that plan when the team-bus couldn’t get out of the High Street in Edinburgh due to the adverse weather conditions. “I hadn’t seen snow since I was ten and some of the guys hadn’t seen it all,” said the Aussie back row. “We are told it won’t be snowing at kick off time on Sunday but let’s wait and see.” 
 
Wilson is hoping for decent conditions to allow his team to bring their back division that includes Potter and rugby league convert Joseph-Aukoso Suaalii into the line as often as possible. 
 
“Joseph’s been awesome for us, “said the number eight. “He’s come in and just gone about his job. For him to get back in against Scotland and have another start after starting against England and 20 minutes off the bench against Wales is great. I’m sure he’ll be fresh and ready to go. He gives a lot of the boys confidence having him around, and I’ve got no doubt he’ll nail his job again. 
 
“Joseph is in the centre against Sione (Tuipulotu) who has been playing some terrific rugby and now he’s captaining Scotland. 
 
“With Sione growing up and playing in Australia a fair few of our team are good mates with him and they’re excited to go out and battle against him. The way he plays week in week out, we’ll definitely have to stop him, because he’s such a damaging ball-carrier.”  
 
Australia are still on track for a first northern hemisphere “Grand Slam” since 1984 with England and Wales beaten and Scotland and Ireland still to come. 
 
“It is super-exciting we’ve kept the Grand Slam alive so far but the only way we can do it is if we go out there this weekend and get the win over Scotland,” he said. “We are really trying to take it week by week, and session by session. So for us it’s about doing the job against Scotland, which is exciting. It’s at a sold-out Murrayfield, which is pretty cool for us to be involved in. 
 
“We’ve already beaten England and Wales both of whom we rated highly. I feel that getting the win against England was a reward for a lot of hard work over we did over The Rugby Championship, where we felt we were building well as a squad. 
 
“We were stoked to get the win there, because we know how much of a quality outfit England is, and the week before they had a chance to beat the All Blacks - and we know how good an outfit the All Blacks are. 

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“Same as Wales. They’ve obviously had a tough 2024, but 12 months earlier they beat us 40-6, so you never take that a win in Cardiff for granted. 
 
“In the last Six Nations Scotland beat England, they nearly beat Ireland and France so we are facing a tough task. 
 
“They have a big physical pack with a really good back row, and then a pretty big back line too with a lot of power and pace. 
 
“We know how tight their game against the Springboks was and how well Scotland played in it and I guess they just fell off late.  They are a very good a team but we are ready even although the weather hasn’t made preparations easy.”