Head Coach Vern Cotter today named the Scotland team to face South Africa in this Saturday’s penultimate Rugby World Cup Pool B match at St James’ Park, Newcastle (kick-off 17:45 SA Time, 16:45 BST, 15:45 GMT).

Scotland lead the group on 10 Log points following back-to-back bonus-point wins over Japan and USA, while the 2007 champions – and the Pool’s top seeds – South Africa, are just 3 adrift in 2nd place, having picked up maximum points against Samoa (5) and 2 bonus-points in their narrow loss to Japan.

The match between the 2 familiar foes could therefore be significant in determining the outcome of the group, before Scotland complete their Pool campaign against Samoa the following weekend at the same venue.

Scotland Head Coach, Vern Cotter, said: “This is a massive test for our team. Playing South Africa is one of the biggest challenges you can face as a rugby player. We’ll need to be very good on the day.”

For the 2nd week running Cotter has announced 10 changes to the starting line-up, however there is a familiar feel to the squad, with just 4 players set for their 1st outing in the 2015 tournament.

New arrival, Blair Cowan (loose forward), prop Gordon Reid and centre Richie Vernon will all start their 1st match of the campaign in place of John Hardie – who continues the return-to-play protocol – Ryan Grant and Mark Bennett, while Edinburgh scrumhalf Sam Hidalgo-Clyne could join them from the bench.

3 Further changes have been made to the starting back division: captain Greig Laidlaw returns at scrumhalf, where he’ll partner fellow halfback Duncan Weir; a replacement for Finn Russell who continues to recover from an ankle injury.

Wing Tommy Seymour starts in place of Sean Maitland, where he’ll join Tim Visser and Stuart Hogg in the back-3 – the latter the only player to start all 3 matches for Scotland thusfar.

In the forwards hooker Fraser Brown gets the start that evaded him against USA, when a loose forward injury forced a late rotation.

He is joined by try-scoring prop WP Nel – who switches roles with Jon Welsh once again – while the rested Jonny Gray returns to start alongside brother Richie, in place of the injured Grant Gilchrist (groin).

The changes are completed by Josh Strauss, who moves to the blindside flank at the expense of Alasdair Strokosch, to accommodate No 8 David Denton.

Scotland: 15 Stuart Hogg, 14 Tommy Seymour, 13 Richie Vernon, 12 Matt Scott, 11 Tim Visser, 10 Duncan Weir, 9 Greig Laidlaw (Captain), 8 David Denton, 7 Blair Cowan, 6 Josh Strauss, 5 Jonny Gray, 4 Richie Gray, 3 WP Nel, 2 Fraser Brown, 1 Gordon Reid
Replacements: 16 Ross Ford, 17 Alasdair Dickinson, 18 Jon Welsh, 19 Tim Swinson, 20 Ryan Wilson, 21 Sam Hidalgo-Clyne, 22 Peter Horne, 23 Sean Lamont.

Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)
Assistant Referees: Chris Pollock (New Zealand), Leighton Hodges (Wales)
TMO: George Ayoub (Australia)

The two Strausses – Josh and Adriaan, were team mates on a Springbok training camp in 2012 (pictured below) but they will be in opposing teams on Saturday. With Adriaan on the bench they may not actually be on the field playing at the same time for very long though.