Greig Laidlaw
Scotland have made 4 changes to the starting line-up that defeated Samoa in their last Pool B match at the Rugby World Cup.
This is the smallest number of changes Scotland have made in successive Rugby World Cup matches since the 2007 Rugby World Cup, when they made no changes to the team that beat Italy in the pool phase and then faced Argentina in the quarterfinals.
Ross Ford and Jonny Gray will both be unavailable due to bans, with Fraser Brown and Tim Swinson taking their respective places in the starting 15.
Greig Laidlaw will captain the side, as he has done over the course of this tournament, for the 21st time in a Test match for Scotland – joint-2nd most, along with Bryan Redpath. Only David Sole has captained Scotland more (25 times) in Tests.
At the conclusion of the Pool phase, Laidlaw was the tournament’s leading points scorer on 60 and is closing in on a milestone, as he has kicked 99 penalty goals in his Test career. The only 2 players that have totalled 100-plus for Scotland – Chris Paterson (170) and Gavin Hastings (140).
Tommy Seymour has scored a try in each of his last 4 appearances. The record for a Scotland player for scoring tries in most consecutive matches, in the professional era, is 5 by Gregor Townsend in 1999.
Scotland: 15 Stuart Hogg, 14 Sean Maitland, 13 Mark Bennett, 12 Pete Horne, 11 Tommy Seymour, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Greig Laidlaw (Captain), 8 David Denton, 7 John Hardie, 6 Blair Cowan, 5 Richie Gray, 4 Tim Swinson, 3 WP Nel, 2 Fraser Brown, 1 Alasdair Dickinson
Replacements: 16 Kevin Bryce, 17 Gordon Reid, 18 Jon Welsh, 19 Alasdair Strokosch, 20 Josh Strauss, 21 Henry Pyrgos, 22 Richie Vernon, 23 Sean Lamont.
Date: Sunday 18 October
Venue: Twickenham, England
Kick-Off: 17:00 SA Time (16:00 UK Time, 15:00 GMT, Monday 02:00 AEDT)
Referee: Craig Joubert (South Africa)
Assistant Referees: Glen Jackson (New Zealand), Pascal Gauzère (France)
TMO: Ben Skeen (New Zealand)
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