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Scotland make three changes to their pack to face the French
By Liam Heagney
Gregor Townsend has made three changes to his Scotland team - all in the pack - to face France this Saturday at Murrayfield following the round two Guinness Six Nations defeat away to Wales on February 12. Rory Darge will make his first start for the Scots when he takes over at blindside, with Sam Skinner switching to lock following the loss to injury of Jonny Gray.
There are also changes at tighthead and No8. Zander Fagerson comes into the front row in place of the benched WP Nel while his brother Matt Fagerson is replaced in the Scotland back row by Magnus Bradbury, who is starting his first game for Scotland since 2020.
In the replacements, Oli Kebble is included after joining the squad this week. Jamie Hodgson and Nick Haining will also be aiming to make their first Scotland appearances in this year’s Six Nations off the bench. Mark Bennett also makes his return to a Scotland squad for the first time since 2018.
SCOTLAND (vs France, Saturday)
15. Stuart Hogg - Exeter Chiefs - (Captain) - 90 caps
14. Darcy Graham - Edinburgh Rugby - 24 caps
13. Chris Harris – Gloucester Rugby - 33 caps
12. Sione Tuipulotu - Glasgow Warriors - 3 caps
11. Duhan van der Merwe - Worcester Warriors - 15 caps
10. Finn Russell – Racing 92 - (vice-captain) - 60 caps
9. Ali Price – Glasgow Warriors - 48 caps
1. Pierre Schoeman - Edinburgh Rugby - 6 caps
2. Stuart McInally - Edinburgh Rugby - 45 caps
3. Zander Fagerson - Glasgow Warriors - 44 caps
4. Sam Skinner – Exeter Chiefs - 17 caps
5. Grant Gilchrist - Edinburgh Rugby - (Vice-Captain) - 50 caps
6. Rory Darge - Glasgow Warriors - 1 cap
7. Hamish Watson - Edinburgh Rugby - 47 caps
8. Magnus Bradbury - Edinburgh Rugby - 16 caps
Replacements
16. George Turner - Glasgow Warriors - 22 caps
17. Oli Kebble - Glasgow Warriors - 11 caps
18. WP Nel - Edinburgh Rugby - 45 caps
19. Jamie Hodgson - Edinburgh Rugby - 3 caps
20. Nick Haining – Edinburgh Rugby - 10 caps
21. Ben White - London Irish – 2 cap
22. Blair Kinghorn - Edinburgh Rugby - 29 caps
23. Mark Bennett - Edinburgh Rugby – 22 caps
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Latest Comments
It is if he thinks he’s got hold of the ball and there is at least one other player between him and the ball carrier, which is why he has to reach around and over their heads. Not a deliberate action for me.
Go to commentsI understand, but England 30 years ago were a set piece focused kick heavy team not big on using backs.
Same as now.
South African sides from any period will have a big bunch of forwards smashing it up and a first five booting everything in their own half.
NZ until recently rarely if ever scrummed for penalties; the scrum is to attack from, broken play, not structured is what we’re after.
Same as now.
These are ways of playing very ingrained into the culture.
If you were in an English club team and were off to Fiji for a game against a club team you’d never heard of and had no footage of, how would you prepare?
For a forward dominated grind or would you assume they will throw the ball about because they are Fijian?
A Fiji way. An English way.
An Australian way depends on who you’ve scraped together that hasn’t been picked off by AFL or NRL, and that changes from generation to generation a lot of the time.
Actually, maybe that is their style. In fact, yes they have a style.
Nevermind. Fuggit I’ve typed it all out now.
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