Rugby World Cup: Scotland call up hooker Kevin Bryce

Glasgow Warriors hooker Kevin Bryce joins Scotstoun team-mate Fraser Brown in the Scotland squad

Glasgow Warriors hooker Kevin Bryce has been called up to Scotland's World Cup squad to replace Edinburgh's Stuart McInally, who has a neck injury.

Edinburgh hooker Ross Ford is likely to be Vern Cotter's first choice, leaving Bryce, 27, and Warriors team-mate Fraser Brown as back-up.

"It's not quite sunk in yet," said Bryce. "It's all happened pretty fast.

"I managed to get a quick phone call into my old man. He was on a building site and he was quite taken aback!"

McInally played in his first and second Scotland matches in the back-to-back wins over Italy last month before being named in the 31-man squad.

However a MRI scan revealed the extent of a subsequent, ongoing neck complaint that requires a prolonged period of recovery beyond the competition.

Bryce won his first cap for Scotland in the 2014 summer tour win over Canada.

"I haven't spoken to Stuart yet," he said. "I feel quite bad the way it's come about through an injury and my thoughts are with him.

"That's the pinnacle of your rugby career; you want to make a World Cup squad and I'm just happy I can do it.

"I went away to Italy with them two or three weeks ago so I was there or thereabouts, but I never thought I was going to get the phone call this early or ever at all."

Scotland begin their World Cup Pool B campaign with a match against Japan in Gloucester a week on Wednesday.

Bryce had been involved with the Scotland squad for their warm-up matches as precautionary cover but was one of seven players cut from the extended squad at the end of last month.