Gregor Townsend has named his Scotland team to face England

Gregor Townsend has named a Scotland side to play England in this Saturday’s Guinness Six Nations showing seven changes from the team that started last time out versus Argentina in the Autumn Nations Series. The Scots won that November encounter 52-29 at Murrayfield but they will now go into battle against the English 11 weeks later with a much-changed selection.

Three of the changes are in the backs. Kyle Steyn is in for the injured Darcy Graham on the right wing after beating off the competition of Blair Kinghorn and Sean Maitland. Huw Jones is a surprise starter at outside centre for the benched Chris Harris, while Ben White has been named as the starting No9, the position filled in the last Scotland match by Ali Price who misses out on the match day 23 entirely.

In the pack, George Turner and WP Nel will start at hooker and tighthead respectively, with Fraser Brown dropping to the bench and Zander Fagerson excluded altogether as it was decided not to risk the hamstring injury he has just recovered from.

At second row, Richie Gray has got the place of his benched brother Jonny, while the one switch in the back row sees Luke Crosbie named in place of Jack Dempsey, another who is now among the replacements.

Crosbie’s selection at openside has caused a positional reshuffle with skipper Jamie Ritchie moving from No7 to blindside and Matt Fagerson going from No6 to No8. Townsend has selected a Scotland bench with a five/three forwards/backs split.

Scotland (vs England, Saturday)
15. Stuart Hogg (Exeter Chiefs) 96 caps
14. Kyle Steyn (Glasgow Warriors) 5 caps
13. Huw Jones (Glasgow Warriors) 31 caps
12. Sione Tuipulotu (Glasgow Warriors) 11 caps
11. Duhan van der Merwe (Edinburgh Rugby) 23 caps
10. Finn Russell (Racing 92) 65 caps
9. Ben White (London Irish) 9 caps
1. Pierre Schoeman (Edinburgh Rugby) 16 caps
2. George Turner (Glasgow Warriors) 30 caps
3. WP Nel (Edinburgh Rugby) 50 caps
4. Richie Gray (Glasgow Warriors) 69 caps
5. Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh Rugby) – Vice Captain – 59 caps
6. Jamie Ritchie (Edinburgh Rugby) – Captain – 36 caps
7. Luke Crosbie (Edinburgh Rugby) 2 caps
8. Matt Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors) 28 caps

Replacements:
16. Fraser Brown (Glasgow Warriors) 57 caps
17. Jamie Bhatti (Glasgow Warriors) 25 caps
18. Simon Berghan (Glasgow Warriors) 31 caps
19. Jonny Gray (Exeter Chiefs) 72 caps
20. Jack Dempsey (Glasgow Warriors) 4 caps
21. George Horne (Glasgow Warriors) 18 caps
22. Blair Kinghorn (Edinburgh Rugby) 38 caps
23. Chris Harris (Gloucester Rugby) 39 caps