Back row Magnus Bradbury replaces Nick Haining in the only change to the Scotland line-up for Saturday’s Six Nations visit of England.

Haining, 29, impressed on his debut last week in the 19-12 opening-day loss to Ireland but drops to the bench, with Cornell du Preez omitted altogether.

Bradbury missed the defeat in Dublin but will line up at Murrayfield.

Meanwhile, scrum-half Ben Youngs is among the senior players left out as England make five changes to their starting XV to face Scotland.

Willi Heinz replaces Youngs at nine, with flanker Lewis Ludlam in for Courtney Lawes in the wake of defeat by France on the opening weekend.

Prop Mako Vunipola and lock George Kruis return, with Jonathan Joseph replacing injured centre Manu Tuilagi.

Saracens’ Ben Earl is set for a debut as one of six forwards on the bench.

Bath hooker Tom Dunn could also win his first cap as he joins Lawes and Joe Launchbury, who has recovered from a knee injury, among the replacements.

Dunn was recalled to the squad when Luke Cowan-Dickie left the team’s training camp on Thursday morning after his wife went into labour.

Joe Marler, who started the defeat by France, is left out of the matchday squad entirely with Ellis Genge as loose-head back-up and Will Stuart covering the other side of the scrum.

Gregor Townsend’s men are aiming to keep the Calcutta Cup for the third year running.

Scotland prevailed 25-13 in the teams’ last Murrayfield meeting in 2018, and retained the trophy after fighting back from 31-0 down in a madcap 38-38 draw at Twickenham last year.

Townsend has kept faith with the vast bulk of the side that delivered an encouraging but wasteful performance in Dublin.

Despite some defensive lapses, Huw Jones is again given a start in midfield alongside Sam Johnson, who scored the try that briefly put Scotland in front at Twickenham.

Fly-half Finn Russell remains in international exile after breaching team protocol last month, and Adam Hastings is trusted once more with steering the team in the number 10 jersey.

“We were proud of parts of our performance in Dublin at a very difficult venue,” said Townsend. “The challenge for the squad is to replicate that level and take our chances when they come, in order to win tight games.

“England are an excellent team whose run to the Rugby World Cup final was no fluke.

“They will be smarting from their opener in Paris and Eddie [Jones, head coach] will have them primed to come to Edinburgh and put in an improved performance.”

Scotland: Hogg (capt); Maitland, Jones, Johnson, Kinghorn; Hastings, Price; Sutherland, Brown, Fagerson, Cummings, Gray, Ritchie, Watson, Bradbury.

Replacements: McInally, Dell, Berghan, Toolis, Haining, Horne, Hutchinson, Harris.

England: Furbank; May, Joseph, Farrell, Daly; Ford, Heinz; M Vunipola, George, Sinckler, Kruis, Itoje, Ludlam, Underhill, Curry

Replacements: Dunn, Genge, Stuart, Launchbury, Lawes, Earl, Youngs, Devoto

“It is just a reversal of roles,” head coach Eddie Jones said when asked about the change at nine.

“We feel, depending on conditions, that the game breaks up and there is more space for his Ben’s running skills which we want to get back into his game.

“Willi tends to play with a fair bit of control, has a good kicking game and has a calming influence on the people around him.”

Youngs, 30, is the most experienced player in England’s Six Nations squad with 96 caps to his name, but was out-shone by opposite number Antoine Dupont in Paris.

Gloucester’s Heinz, 33, will be making only his fourth start for England. Head coach Jones opted to take just those two scrum-halves to the Rugby World Cup last year, overlooking the likes of Saracens duo Ben Spencer and Richard Wigglesworth or Harlequins’ Danny Care as cover.

Northampton’s Alex Mitchell, 22, was included in his latest wider squad as an apprentice, however, after making his way back from a knee injury.

The conditions on Saturday are set to favour an attritional, rather than ambitious, gameplan, with Storm Ciara forecast to bring winds of more than 40mph to the Scottish capital.

Jones also repeated his claim that Scotland indulge in deliberate gamesmanship to try and put off their opponents.

Before England’s last game at Murrayfield in 2018, Owen Farrell clashed with Scotland forward Ryan Wilson in the tunnel as the teams returned from their warm-ups.

Jones also claimed that during his time in charge of Australia between 2001 and 2005 Scotland re-marked the pitch on the evening before a Test match to restrict the width the tourists could play with.

“This is a consistent sort of behaviour that we see from Scotland so we just have to be prepared for anything,” he said.

“We know they are going to come at us, try and distract us and put us off our games and they were able to do that in the tunnel two years ago. There could be more of the same this year or it could be something else.”

England have won on just three of their last seven trips to Murrayfield, losing 25-13 on their most recent visit in 2018.

Historically, they have won just 42% of away matches against Scotland in a rivalry that stretches back to 1871. By contrast England have won 67% of their home matches against their neighbours.

bbc

 

 

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