White damaged his right knee in Sale Sharks' victory against Leeds Tykes last week and could be out for the rest of the tournament.

Replacing him will be Taylor, back in the dark blue jersey for the first time in almost a year after suffering a knee injury against Ireland last March.

And while Petrie admits the loss of highly-rated White is a blow, the Edinburgh Rugby player is confident Taylor will be prove to be a more than adequate replacement.

He said: "In the past couple of games Jason has been on top of his game and has been providing a lot of the good things that we have been doing in defence and attack.

"It is obviously disappointing to see that he misses out but we have got someone of Simon's quality coming in and it is a good opportunity for some of the other guys to take over some of the good things that Jason has been doing.

"Simon is a different player, Jason is very much and out and out blind side flanker but I think to an extent things will be interchangeable in the back row.

"Simon, Ally Hogg and myself are all similar players but it could be an advantage that we have got three guys who are confident ball runners and it can be difficult for an opposition to read. So losing Jason is a blow but we can't dwell on things.''