He said: “I have known Jonny since the Caledonian Reds days and I have always been impressed with him both as a player and a person.

“I have watched him grow in the role of captain at Glasgow and I believe he is capable of going to the next level in that role and look forward to seeing what he does in the next couple of games.

“The key to success is the quality of the leadership group and it’s great to have on board people with experience like Scott Murray and Chris Paterson, who I’m sure will make life a lot easier for Jonny.”

Petrie will follow in the footsteps of fellow Dundee HSFP clubmen Rob Wainwright, Andy Nicol and Tom Smith when he leads the team out in Bucharest on June 5 before taking on the Barbarians at Pittodrie on May 24.

He enthused: “This is an honour that I didn’t really expect.

“It’s nice to know that I’ve been going in the right direction with captaincy at Glasgow.”

Petrie, who has won 40 caps, led Scotland outwith the Test arena during last year’s summer tour of Australia.

He added: “I tend to be very vocal on the pitch.

“Off the pitch I think it’s important to tap into other guys’ strengths.

“We’ve a really good group of senior players in the Scotland set-up just now and we’ll look to use people who have strengths in different areas.

“I think people realise we’ve been through a bit of a low in the past year with all the changes in the upper echelons of the SRU.

“We’ve now got a chance to make a fresh start and there’s a lot of anticipation within the squad to get on with the job.”