Jamie Roberts and Scott Williams dropped from Wales squad as Scotland call-up Welsh-born Luke Hamilton

Warren Gatland marked his return to Wales duty with a surprising squad announcement on Tuesday by dropping three seasoned internationals in Jamie Roberts, Scott Williams and Luke Charteris, including a player who made his professional debut last Saturday and naming another who will not even be eligible to play for his side until 2 December.

On the same day, the recently-appointed Scotland head coach, Gregor Townsend, named a 36-man squad that contains 10 debutants, one of which hails from Carlisle and another from Wales who has already represented their Under-20s side.

Confused? You bet.

Just a week after the England hierarchy expressed concern that their brightest young talents could be poached by rivals nations at academy level, both Wales and Scotland named squads that triggered plenty of head-scratching across the British Isles.

The most surprising talking point in terms of Gatland’s return from British and Irish Lions duty came in the axing of veteran Harlequins centre Roberts, who along with Scarlets centre Williams and Bath lock Charteris hold 215 international caps. To make matters more complex, Gatland called up Scarlets centre Hadleigh Parkes, the New Zealand-born Scarlets centre who does not qualify for Wales on residency grounds until 2 December – the day of their final autumn international against South Africa.

That means that Parkes cannot play in the matches against Australia, Georgia and New Zealand until he completes three full years as a Welsh resident, and leaves Gatland the choice of Owen Williams, Jonathan Davies, Tyler Morgan and Owen Watkin to fill his midfield from the 36-man squad that will be led by Ospreys lock Alun Wyn Jones. However, with Rhys Priestland recalled following his impressive form for Bath, Gatland could look to take a leaf out of his own Lions playbook and deploy two natural fly-halves by moving Dan Biggar to inside centre to accommodate the returning Priestland, echoing his decision to start Johnny Sexton and Owen Farrell together during the summer.

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Following the change to the Senior Player Selection Policy [SPSP] earlier this month, Gatland has named five players based abroad in his squad in Exeter Chiefs prop Tomas Francis, Bath No 8 Taulupe Faletau and out-half Priestland, Gloucester back Owen Williams and his Saracens namesake Liam Williams, with all players still eligible until their current contracts expire. Rhys Webb, whose well-documented move to Toulon next year will prevent him from playing for Wales, is named in the squad as one of three scrum-halves, but there is no space for his Ospreys teammate Scott Baldwin due to his lack of playing time since being bitten on the hand by a lion in South Africa.

In comparison, Scotland’s first autumn international squad under Townsend appeared to be a walk in the park on the face of things, but there is still the curious call-up of Leicester Tigers back-row Luke Hamilton as well as 10 new call-ups – six of whom weren’t actually born in Scotland.

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In fact, a third of the side were born abroad, with Hamilton proving to be the most controversial given that he represented Wales Under-20s in the 2012 Junior World Championships and, having been born in Pembroke, had been tipped for a future call-up by Gatland only for him to pledge his allegiance to Scotland through his Stirling-born father – with World Rugby not tying Under-20 players to a nation until 2014. He joins Newcastle Falcons centre Chris Harris, who despite hailing from Carlisle is eligible to play for Scotland through his Edinburgh-born grandmother.

Townsend’s hand has been forced somewhat, given that no fewer than 12 capped internationals are unavailable through injury that includes captain Greig Laidlaw, hooker Fraser Brown, props Allan Dell and Alasdair Dickinson and Saracens duo Sean Maitland and Duncan Taylor, but there are welcome returns from injury for Glasgow centre Huw Jones as well as British and Irish Lions Stuart Hogg and Tommy Seymour.

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With Eddie Jones set to name an England side on Thursday that will feature a number of players born outside of the country, it’s no wonder that nations are trying to tie down players as soon possible while attempting to poach others.

Forwards: R Evans (Scarlets), W Jones (Scarlets), N Smith (Ospreys), L Brown (Dragons), T Francis (Exeter), S Lee (Scarlets), K Dacey (Cardiff Blues), E Dee (Dragons), K Owens (Scarlets), J Ball (Scarlets), A Beard (Ospreys), S Davies (Cardiff Blues), C Hill (Dragons), A W Jones (Ospreys, capt), S Cross (Ospreys), T Faletau (Bath), D Lydiate (Ospreys), J Navidi (Cardiff Blues), A Shingler (Scarlets), J Tipuric (Ospreys).

Backs: A Davies (Scarlets), G Davies (Scarlets), R Webb (Ospreys), D Biggar (Ospreys), R Patchell (Scarlets), R Priestland (Bath), O Williams (Gloucester), J Davies (Scarlets), T Morgan (Dragons), H Parkes (Scarlets), O Watkin (Ospreys), H Amos (Dragons), A Cuthbert (Cardiff Blues), S Evans (Scarlets), L Halfpenny (Scarlets), L Williams (Saracens).

Forwards: S Berghan (Edinburgh), J Bhatti (Glasgow), J Barclay (Scarlets, captain), S Cummings (Glasgow), C Du Preez (Edinburgh), Z Fagerson (Glasgow), R Ford (Edinburgh), G Gilchrist (Edinburgh), J Gray (Glasgow), R Harley (Glasgow), L Hamilton (Leicester Tigers), D Marfo (Edinburgh), S McInally (Edinburgh), WP Nel (Edinburgh), J Ritchie (Edinburgh), T Swinson (Glasgow), B Toolis (Edinburgh), G Turner (Glasgow), R Wilson (Glasgow), Hamish Watson (Edinburgh).

Backs: P Burleigh (Edinburgh), A Dunbar (Glasgow), D Fife (Edinburgh), N Fowles (Edinburgh), C Harris (Newcastle Falcons), N Grigg (Glasgow), S Hogg (Glasgow), P Horne (Glasgow), R Jackson (Glasgow), L Jones (Glasgow), H Jones (Stormers), B McGuigan (Sale Sharks), A Price (Glasgow), H Pyrgos (Glasgow), F Russell (Glasgow), T Seymour (Glasgow).