HUW JONES WILL renew his midfield partnership with Alex Dunbar in Scotland’s Six Nations opener against Ireland on Saturday [Murrayfield, kick-off 2.25pm, RTÉ].
Jones turned in a man-of-the-match performance with two tries in the November defeat against Australia, and he returns to Vern Cotter’s starting XV as one of three changes.
Glasgow’s Fraser Brown gets the nod over Ross Ford at hooker while in the back row, Josh Strauss is preferred to his Warriors team-mate Rob Harley.
There is one new face among the replacements with Edinburgh prop Simon Berghan likely to win his first international cap at some point in proceedings.
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“Facing Ireland first up doesn’t get much harder,” Cotter said.
“They are at the top of their game and will come here with confidence after beating some of the best teams in the world, including the All Blacks and Wallabies and having won the tournament twice in the past three years.
“We aim to win every game we play but know that Ireland will come here with a lot of confidence and try to dominate us on our home paddock.
“Those are the challenges of the sport at a high level but we’ll embrace that and put everything we have into getting the right performance and result this Saturday.”
Joe Schmidt names his Ireland team at 2pm this afternoon.
Scotland:
15. Stuart Hogg
14. Sean Maitland
13. Huw Jones
12. Alex Dunbar
11. Tommy Seymour
10. Finn Russell
9. Greig Laidlaw (captain)
1. Allan Dell
2. Fraser Brown
3. Zander Fagerson
4. Richie Gray
5. Jonny Gray
6. Ryan Wilson
7. Hamish Watson
8. Josh Strauss
Substitutes:
16. Ross Ford
17. Gordon Reid
18. Simon Berghan
19. Tim Swinson
20. John Barclay
21. Ali Price
22. Duncan Weir
23. Mark Bennett
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