ScotlandScotland have made three changes in their starting team for their 11th and final international of the season against Italy in Pretoria on Saturday. There are six Glasgow Warriors in the starting XV and five on the bench for the final game of the tour.

glasgowwarriors

In the backs Ruaridh Jackson has not recovered sufficiently from the shoulder injury he sustained against South Africa in Nelspruit last weekend, therefore Tom Heathcote will win his third cap at stand-off.

In the pack Alastair Kellock wins his 55th cap in the second-row for Jim Hamilton, who has returned home for the birth of his second child, and David Denton replaces the injured Ryan Wilson in the back-row.

On the bench Grant Gilchrist, Rob Harley and Tim Visser are introduced.

Scotland head coach Scott Johnson said: “This is the end of a long season for both the northern hemisphere teams in this tournament and, as I’ve said, before we want no rocks under our beach towels after Saturday’s game. I was encouraged by our performance against South Africa last week but having set that standard we have to ensure that we build upwards from it against Italy.

“When we gathered in camp in Perthshire last month I said that this tour would be about broadening our base and that we’d find out about whether certain players were ready to play international rugby.

“That has happened and we’ll take a lot from that but we also want to end the tournament on a high against an Italian team that we know well and that we respect greatly.”

Scotland defeated Italy 34-10 at Murrayfield in February and the RBS man of the match that day, Greig Laidlaw, will captain Scotland for a second time on Saturday.

 

Scotland team to play Italy at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday 22 June, kick-off 14:15 SA time (13:15 BST):

15 Peter Murchie (Glasgow Warriors 1 cap); 14 Tommy Seymour (Glasgow Warriors 1 cap);  13 Alex Dunbar (Glasgow Warriors 2 caps, 1 try, 5 points); 12 Matt Scott (Edinburgh Rugby 14 caps, 2 tries, 10 points); 11 Sean Lamont (Glasgow Warriors 78 caps, 10 tries, 50 points);  10 Tom Heathcote (Bath Rugby 2 caps); 9 Greig Laidlaw (Edinburgh Rugby CAPTAIN, 20 caps, 2 tries, 18 conversions, 44 penalties, 178 points); 1 Alasdair Dickinson (Edinburgh Rugby 26 caps, 1 try, 5 points); 2 Scott Lawson (Newcastle Falcons 37 caps, 2 tries, 10 points); 3 Euan Murray (Worcester Warriors 55 caps, 2 tries, 10 points); 4 Tim Swinson (Glasgow Warriors 1 cap); 5 Alastair Kellock (Glasgow Warriors 54 caps, 1 try, 5 points); 6 David Denton (Edinburgh Rugby 13 caps); 7 Alasdair Strokosch (Perpignan Vice-captain 34 caps, 1 try, 5 points); 8 Johnnie Beattie (Montpellier 23 caps, 3 tries, 15 points)

Replacements: 16 Fraser Brown (Glasgow Warriors uncapped); 17 Moray Low (Glasgow Warriors 20 caps); 18 Jon Welsh (Glasgow Warriors 1 cap); 19 Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh Rugby 2 caps); 20 Robert Harley (Glasgow Warriors 4 caps); 21 Henry Pyrgos (Glasgow Warriors 8 caps, 1 try, 5 points); 22 Duncan Taylor (Saracens 2 caps); 23 Tim Visser (Edinburgh Rugby 11 caps, 6 tries, 30 points)

Referee: Leighton Hodges (Wales).
Assistant Referees:  Lourens van der Merwe and Cobus Wessels (both South Africa).
TMO:  To be appointed by South African RU.

Users Online

Total 102 users including 0 member, 102 guests, 0 bot online

Most users ever online were 3735, on 31 August 2022 @ 6:23 pm