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One change for Scotland as Townsend names his team to play France
By Liam Heagney
Gregor Townsend has named a Scotland team to take on France away this Sunday that has just one change - Hamish Watson for Luke Crosbie - from the round two Guinness Six Nations team that defeated Wales. The Scots went two from two for the first time since the 1996 championship with their comfortable 35-7 Murrayfield dismissal of the Welsh and coach Townsend has responded by keeping his changes to a minimum.
The exact same backline has been chosen en bloc, with the only tweak coming in his pack's back row where Watson is included at the expense of Crosbie, a Scotland starter in the opening two rounds.
Townsend, though, has made intriguing changes on his bench - two in total - and has swapped from a five/three forwards back split versus Wales to a six/two split against the French.
Ali Price has got the nod ahead of George Horne to provide the Scotland team bench scrum-half cover, but the forwards/backs alteration sees Sam Skinner named as an extra pack player with midfielder Chris Harris excluded.
Scotland (vs France, Sunday - 3pm)
15. Stuart Hogg (Exeter Chiefs) 98 caps
14. Kyle Steyn (Glasgow Warriors) 7 caps
13. Huw Jones (Glasgow Warriors) 33 caps
12. Sione Tuipulotu (Glasgow Warriors) 13 caps
11. Duhan van der Merwe (Edinburgh Rugby) 25 caps
10. Finn Russell (Racing 92) 67 caps
9. Ben White (London Irish) 11 caps
1. Pierre Schoeman (Edinburgh Rugby) 18 caps
2. George Turner (Glasgow Warriors) 32 caps
3. Zander Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors) 55 caps
4. Richie Gray (Glasgow Warriors) 71 caps
5. Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh Rugby) – Vice-Captain – 61caps
6. Jamie Ritchie (Edinburgh Rugby) – Captain – 38 caps
7. Hamish Watson (Edinburgh Rugby) 54 caps
8. Matt Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors) 30 caps
Replacements:
16. Fraser Brown (Glasgow Warriors) 59 caps
17. Jamie Bhatti (Glasgow Warriors) 27 caps
18. WP Nel (Edinburgh Rugby) 52 caps
19. Jonny Gray (Exeter Chiefs) 74 caps
20. Sam Skinner (Edinburgh Rugby) 23 caps
21. Jack Dempsey (Glasgow Warriors) 6 caps
22. Ali Price (Glasgow Warriors) 58 caps
23. Blair Kinghorn (Edinburgh Rugby) 40 caps
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Latest Comments
So if this ain’t the best Irish team ever then who exactly is? I don’t remember any other Irish team being this good & winning a series in the Land of the Long White Cloud. Yes I may rip them often for 8 X QF RWC exits & twice not even making it to the QF, but they’re a damn good team who many think can only improve, including me!
Go to commentsNot a squeek out of Leinster for weeks about this match. So quiet. The first team have been quitely building for this encounter under Nienaber’s direction. All fresh, all highly motivated. They are expecting a season’s best performance from Northhampton. They will match that. They will be fresher and apparently they will have 80,000 out of the 83,000 shouting for them. I do expect Northhampton to turn up big time. Not to be missed. On a tangent it is evident how the loss of a few Premiership teams has in some respect helped other Premiership teams and England. More quality over less teams makes the teams better, which has a knock on effect on England. Not the only factor contributing to England’s rise but one of them.
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