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Scotland drop captain Brown

London - Scotland have dropped captain Kelly Brown for the Calcutta Cup Six Nations clash against England at Murrayfield on Saturday.

The openside flanker's place has gone to Glasgow's Chris Fusaro, who will be making his Test debut, with scrum-half Greig Laidlaw taking over the captaincy.

Scotland coach Scott Johnson said it had been a difficult decision to drop Brown in one of three changes he made to the starting XV following last weekend's 28-6 first round defeat by Ireland in Dublin.

Ireland ultimately had the better of some bruising forward exchanges and Australian coach Johnson said ball-winner Fusaro had been selected for a specific task against an England side looking to bounce back from a last gasp 26-24 loss to France.

"Fusaro is picked to do a certain role and we believe there's an opportunity for him to do it," Johnson said.

"England are powerful, they have an edge to their side and are assertive and aggressive. They will probably consider themselves unlucky last weekend but it's not always brute force that wins these games."

The other changes to the starting side saw Tommy Seymour replace injured Glasgow team-mate Sean Maitland on the wing, while Edinburgh centre Matt Scott was promoted from the bench, with Duncan Taylor now among the replacements.

"I spoke to Tommy Seymour in the summer that he needed a point of difference," Johnson explained.

"One of the things that comes to mind is his aerial skills. He possesses natural aerial skills from his time in Ireland. Every time he has gone up in class his skills have transcended."

Teams:

Scotland:

15 Stuart Hogg, 14 Tommy Seymour, 13 Alex Dunbar, 12 Matt Scott, 11 Sean Lamont, 10 Duncan Weir, 9 Greig Laidlaw (captain), 8 David Denton, 7 Chris Fusaro, 6 Ryan Wilson, 5 Jim Hamilton, 4 Tim Swinson, 3 Moray Low, 2 Ross Ford, 1 Ryan Grant

Substitutes: 16 Scott Lawson, 17 Alasdair Dickinson, 18 Geoff Cross, 19 Jonny Gray, 20 Johnnie Beattie, 21 Chris Cusiter, 22 Duncan Taylor, 23 Max Evans

England:

TBA

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