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Two changes to the Scotland XV and bench altered to a 5-3 split
By Liam Heagney
Gregor Townsend has made two changes to his Scotland team in the wake of their Guinness Six Nations round four ambush away to Italy. Having beaten England in round three, there was great optimism that a win in Rome would keep the Scots in the title hunt until the last day in Ireland.
However, their 29-31 Stadio Olimpico setback quashed that ambition and rather than go to Dublin with a title shot still alive, they will contest the minor placings with an XV that has two backline alterations.
Stafford McDowell has been named to start at inside centre with Cameron Redpath dropping to the bench. He is joined there by George Horne, who has lost his starting spot at scrum-half to the promoted Ali Price.
The starting pack from Italy is unchanged, but the make-up of the bench has been altered.
Scotland had a six/two forwards/backs split in Rome but they have chosen a five/three divide for Dublin, with back-rower Jamie Ritchie omitted to accommodate the inclusion of Redpath as the third back.
The one other change to the replacements is the naming of Rory Sutherland as the sub loosehead instead of Alec Hepburn.
Ireland have named an unchanged starting XV despite their loss to England, but they have mirrored Scotland in switching to a five/three bench.
Iain Henderson is the forward to make way for midfielder Garry Ringrose to come onto a bench that also includes Harry Byrne in place of Ciaran Frawley.
Scotland (vs Ireland, Saturday)
15. Blair Kinghorn – Toulouse (52)
14. Kyle Steyn – Glasgow Warriors (18)
13. Huw Jones – Glasgow Warriors (47)
12. Stafford McDowall – Glasgow Warriors (1)
11. Duhan van der Merwe – Edinburgh Rugby (38)
10. Finn Russell – co-captain – Bath Rugby (79)
9. Ben White – Toulon (21)
1. Pierre Schoeman – Edinburgh Rugby (30)
2. George Turner – Glasgow Warriors (44)
3. Zander Fagerson – Glasgow Warriors (66)
4. Grant Gilchrist – vice-captain – Edinburgh Rugby (71)
5. Scott Cummings – Glasgow Warriors (37)
6. Andy Christie – Saracens (7)
7. Rory Darge – co-captain – Glasgow Warriors (18)
8. Jack Dempsey – Glasgow Warriors (19)
Replacements:
16. Ewan Ashman – Edinburgh Rugby (16)
17. Rory Sutherland – Oyonnax (29)
18. Elliot Millar-Mills – Northampton Saints (3)
19. Sam Skinner – Edinburgh Rugby (34)
20. Matt Fagerson – Glasgow Warriors (43)
21. George Horne – Glasgow Warriors (29)
22. Cameron Redpath – Bath Rugby (13)
23. Kyle Rowe – Glasgow Warriors (3)
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After a fairly simple Pac4, the BFs will find out a lot about themselves in September when they face the rampaging RedRoses at Twickenham in front of a record crowd. After that they will face them again in Canada in WXV1. They also have France to contend with. Will be interesting to see what Australia have to offer with Jo Yapp at the helm.
Go to commentsSuper Rugby Pacific has been better as a spectacle due to the emphasis on speeding the game up and I’d look at taking things a step further. Instead of giving teams 90 seconds to take a conversion, let’s bring that down 60 seconds. You could also look at allowing 45 seconds for a penalty goal. Maybe teams could get 20 seconds instead of 30 to form a scrum before the ref then starts the engagement process. However, this year the most pleasing change is the added competitiveness in the Trans Tasman matches. What does frustrate me is how the rugby media in Australasia allow the the whole ‘‘rugby is boring’’/’’rugby yawnion’’ narrative to take hold from from vindictive league types, the chairman of the ARL commission and News Limited Australia. Stick up for the game and shift the narrative!
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