Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Scotland name team with three changes to face Italy

(Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Gregor Townsend has made three change to his Scotland team to face Italy in the Guinness Six Nations on Saturday, with hooker Stuart McInally, second row Ben Toolis and centre Chris Harris promoted from the bench for their first starts of the 2020 campaign.

ADVERTISEMENT

McInally swaps places with Glasgow Warriors’ Fraser Brown, who moves to the bench, and Toolis comes in for the injured Jonny Gray (hand), while Harris is picked in favour of Huw Jones, with Sale Sharks wing Byron McGuigan taking his place on the bench.

Reflecting on the team changes, Townsend said: “We believe Chris and Stuart deserve this opportunity. They were very close to the starting XV when we entered this campaign. We think this is the right time for them to come in.

“Chris has been excellent for Gloucester this season and has continued to make improvements since the summer. He works very hard on both sides of the ball, which will be important this week.

“Stuart has shown over the past few weeks he’s back to full fitness and is raring to go, and Ben gets an opportunity to start following Jonny’s injury against England.

(Continue reading below…)

Clive Woodward calls on the SRU to take drastic action against Finn Russell

Video Spacer

“Second row is a position we have a lot of competition with a number of very good players available for selection. We’re looking forward to seeing how he combines again with Scott (Cummings) after a successful outing together against Russia in the World Cup.”

Edinburgh wing Darcy Graham returned to training last week but did not recover sufficiently from his knee injury to be considered for selection.

ADVERTISEMENT

Both Scotland and Italy go into the game with two defeats each so far in this year’s tournament, the Scots losing to Ireland and England while the Italians have lost out to Wales and France.

The Scots have won 22 of the 30 Tests between the nations but the odds are more evenly stacked when they meet in Italy where the results are level on six wins apiece thanks to a recent run of four consecutive away wins for the Scots.

Townsend added: “Italy are always a very tough opponent, especially in Rome, where we know they’ll look to play with a huge amount of energy.

ADVERTISEMENT

“It’s a different Italy team to the one we’ve played in the past. In their opening two games of the championship, they have played with real ambition and width.

“They’ve also selected athletic, ball players who suit this strategy and are comfortable playing at a high tempo. We are well aware of the threats throughout their team and how their attacking game can cause problems for any defence.”

Scotland team (vs Italy, Saturday)
15. Stuart Hogg CAPT (Exeter Chiefs) – 74 caps
14. Sean Maitland (Saracens) – 46 caps
13. Chris Harris (Gloucester)- 16 caps
12. Sam Johnson (Glasgow Warriors) – 11 caps
11. Blair Kinghorn (Edinburgh) – 19 caps
10. Adam Hastings (Glasgow Warriors) – 18 caps
9. Ali Price (Glasgow Warriors) – 30 caps
1. Rory Sutherland (Edinburgh) – 5 caps
2. Stuart McInally (Edinburgh) – 35 caps
3. Zander Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors) – 27 caps
4. Ben Toolis (Edinburgh) – 24 caps
5. Scott Cummings (Glasgow Warriors) – 10 caps
6. Jamie Ritchie (Edinburgh) – 16 caps
7. Hamish Watson (Edinburgh) – 30 caps
8. Magnus Bradbury (Edinburgh) – 12 caps

Substitutes:
16. Fraser Brown (Glasgow Warriors) – 48 caps
17. Allan Dell (London Irish) – 30 caps
18. Willem Nel (Edinburgh) – 36 caps
19. Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh) – 40 caps
20. Matt Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors) – 5 caps
21. George Horne (Glasgow Warriors) – 11 caps
22. Rory Hutchinson (Northampton Saints) – 4 caps
23. Byron McGuigan (Sale Sharks) – 9 caps

WATCH: The Rugby Pod looks ahead to round three in the Guinness Six Nations 

Video Spacer
ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

A
AM 44 minutes ago
'Freelancer' Izaia Perese shows the need for true inclusivity in Australian rugby

That's Cron's job though. Australia has had one of the most penalised scrums in international rugby for a long time. Just look at the scrum win loss percentage and scrum penalties. That is your evidence. AA has been the starter during that period. Pretty simple analysis. That Australia has had a poor scrum for a long time is hardly news. If bell and thor are not on the field they are woeful. So you are just plain wrong. They have very little time for the lions so doing the same old things that dont work is not going to get them there.


Ainsley is better than our next best tighthead options and has been playing well at scrum time for Lyon in the most competitive comp in the world. Superstar player? No. But better than the next best options. So that is a good enough guide. The scrummaging in the Prem is pretty good too so there is Sio's proof. Same analysis for him. Certainly better in both cases than Super, where the brumbies had the worst win loss and scrum pen in Super. Who plays there? Ohh yes... And the level of scrummaging in Super is well below the URC, prem and France with the SA teams out.


Nongorr is truly woeful. He's 130kg and gets shoved about. That just should not be happening at that weight for a specialist prop who has always played rugby cf pone with leauge. He has had enough time to develop at 23. You'd be better off with Pone who is at least good around the field for the moment and sending Nongorr on exchange to France or England to see if they can improve him with better coaching as happened with Skelton and Meafou. He isn't going to develop in time in super if he has it at all.


Latu is a better scrummaging hooker than BPA and Nasser. and he's the best aussie player over the ball at ruck time. McReight's super jackling percentage hasnt converted to international level but latu consistently does it at heniken level, which is similar to test level in the big games. With good coaching at La Rochelle he's much improved though still has the odd shocker. He should start the November games.

72 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING Joe Marler has sold England down the river – Andy Goode Joe Marler has sold England down the river – Andy Goode
Search