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SA-born Du Preez gets first start against All Blacks

Edinburgh - South Africa-born Cornell du Preez starts for Scotland for the first time against world champions New Zealand in Saturday's one-off Test at Murrayfield.

The 26-year-old No 8 - who has three caps to his name as a replacement - replaces the injured Ryan Wilson in one of two enforced changes from the starting XV that was pushed all the way by Samoa in last Saturday's 44-38 victory.

The other change sees head coach Gregor Townsend bring in prop Zander Fagerson for another South Africa-born player WP Nel, who fractured his arm in the Samoa match.

"The players are looking forward to getting back out on the pitch after last weekend's high-scoring match against Samoa, which highlighted a few areas we've sought to improve this week at training," said Townsend.

"The task of facing New Zealand is one of the biggest challenges in sport and one that our players relish. They have been in brilliant form this season and continue to set very high standards whenever they play."

Townsend has called on Simon Berghan and the uncapped Luke Hamilton to replace du Preez and Fagerson on the replacements bench whilst another uncapped player, Sale Sharks wing Byron McGuigan, comes in for Chris Harris, who drops out after making his debut against Samoa.

One other change in the replacements sees lock Grant Gilchrist replace Tim Swinson, who has failed to recover from a hand injury.

Teams

Scotland

15 Stuart Hogg; 14 Tommy Seymour, 13 Huw Jones, 12 Alex Dunbar, 11 Lee Jones; 10 Finn Russell, 9 Ali Price; 8 Cornell du Preez, 7 Hamish Watson, 6 John Barclay (captain); 5 Jonny Gray, 4 Ben Toolis; 3 Zander Fagerson, 2 Stuart McInally, 1 Darryl Marfo

Substitutes: 16 George Turner, 17 Jamie Bhatti, 18 Simon Berghan, 19 Grant Gilchrist, 20 Luke Hamilton, 21 Henry Pyrgos, 22 Pete Horne, 23 Byron McGuiga

New Zealand

15 Damian McKenzie, 14 Waisake Naholo, 13 Ryan Crotty, 12 Sonny Bill Williams, 11 Rieko Ioane, 10 Beauden Barrett, 9 Aaron Smith, 8 Kieran Read (captain), 7 Sam Cane, 6 Vaea Fifita, 5 Samuel Whitelock, 4 Luke Romano, 3 Nepo Laulala, 2 Codie Taylor, 1 Kane Hames

Substitutes: 16 Nathan Harris, 17 Wyatt Crockett, 18 Ofa Tu’ungafasi, 19 Liam Squire, 20 Matt Todd, 21 TJ Perenara, 22 Lima Sopoaga, 23 Anton Lienert-Brown

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