Scotland Make One Change For Ireland Showdown
Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend has made one change to his team for Saturday’s NatWest 6 Nations tussle with unbeaten Ireland at the Aviva Stadium (kick-off 2.15pm).
Back-to-back wins over France and England at BT Murrayfield have earned all but one of the Scottish starting XV the opportunity to take their home form on the road, with Glasgow Warriors winger Tommy Seymour an injury-enforced change to the back divisions.
Seymour has failed to recover sufficiently from the back injury he suffered during the memorable 25-13 Calcutta Cup win over England last time out. Edinburgh’s Blair Kinghorn comes in for first start for Scotland on the right wing, with Lee Jones from Glasgow added to the bench.
Gregor Townsend has made one further change to the replacements, with Glasgow hooker Fraser Brown, who featured in all but two of Scotland’s Tests last year, returning from injury to replace Scott Lawson.
Head coach Townsend said: “We were delighted with the result against England and backing up our win against France with an improved performance. The intent we showed in attack and defence in the first half was very encouraging and we continued to work hard in the second half.
“The effort that went into denying England a second try in the closing minutes was great to see. Our players had prepared very well for the challenge of taking on England and there has been a similar focus and commitment this week at training.
“There are a few areas of our game that we are working to improve and we are aware that we will have to be better if we are to beat a very good Ireland side in Dublin.”
SCOTLAND Team & Replacements (v Ireland, 2018 NatWest 6 Nations Championship, Aviva Stadium, Saturday, March 10, kick-off 2.15pm):
Player/Club/Province/Caps –
15. Stuart Hogg (Glasgow Warriors) 58
14. Blair Kinghorn (Edinburgh) 1
13. Huw Jones (Glasgow Warriors) 14
12. Pete Horne (Glasgow Warriors) 31
11. Sean Maitland (Saracens) 32
10. Finn Russell (Glasgow Warriors) 35
9. Greig Laidlaw (Clermont Auvergne) 61
1. Gordon Reid (London Irish) 30
2. Stuart McInally (Edinburgh) 15
3. Simon Berghan (Edinburgh) 7
4. Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh) 21
5. Jonny Gray (Glasgow Warriors) 41
6. John Barclay (Scarlets) (capt) 69
7. Hamish Watson (Edinburgh) 18
8. Ryan Wilson (Glasgow Warriors) 35
Replacements:
16. Fraser Brown (Glasgow Warriors) 29
17. Jamie Bhatti (Glasgow Warriors) 6
18. Willem Nel (Edinburgh) 20
19. Tim Swinson (Glasgow Warriors) 34
20. David Denton (Worcester Warriors) 37
21. Ali Price (Glasgow Warriors) 14
22. Nick Grigg (Glasgow Warriors) 2
23. Lee Jones (Glasgow Warriors) 7