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High-flying Scotland change one for Ireland clash

Cape Town - Head coach Gregor Townsend has made one change to the starting Scotland team for this Saturday’s Six Nations Test against an unbeaten Ireland side at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.

Back-to-back wins over France and England at Murrayfield have earned all but one of the starting XV the opportunity to take their home form on the road, with Glasgow Warriors wing Tommy Seymour an injury-enforced change to the back division, having failed to recover sufficiently from the back injury sustained in the national team’s Calcutta Cup win.

In-form Edinburgh back Blair Kinghorn will earn his first start for the national team on the wing in place of Seymour, with Glasgow Warriors wing Lee Jones taking his vacated place on the bench.

Townsend has made one further change to the replacements bench, with Glasgow Warriors hooker Fraser Brown - who featured in all but two Scotland Tests last year - returning from injury to replace Scott Lawson.

“We were delighted with the result against England and backing up our win against France with an improved performance," said Townsend.

“The intent we showed in attack and defence in the first half was very encouraging and we continued to work hard in the second-half. The effort that went into denying England a second try in the closing minutes was great to see.

“Our players had prepared very well for the challenge of taking on England and there has been a similar focus and commitment this week at training.

“There are a few areas of our game that we are working to improve and we are aware that we will have to be better if we are to beat a very good Ireland side in Dublin.”

Teams:

Ireland

15 Rob Kearney; 14 Keith Earls, 13 Garry Ringrose, 12 Bundee Aki, 11 Jacob Stockdale; 10 Johnny Sexton, 9 Conor Murray; 8 CJ Stander, 7 Dan Leavy, 6 Peter O'Mahony; 5 Devin Toner, 4 James Ryan; 3 Tadhg Furlong, 2 Rory Best (captain), 1 Cian Healy

Substitutes: 16 Sean Cronin, 17 Jack McGrath, 18 Andrew Porter, 19 Iain Henderson, 20 Jordi Murphy, 21 Kieran Marmion, 22 Joey Carbery, 23 Jordan Larmour

Scotland

15 Stuart Hogg, 14 Blair Kinghorn, 13 Huw Jones, 12 Pete Horne, 11 Sean Maitland, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Greig Laidlaw, 8 Ryan Wilson, 7 Hamish Watson, 6 John Barclay (captain), 5 Jonny Gray, 4 Grant Gilchrist, 3 Simon Berghan, 2 Stuart McInally, 1 Gordon Reid

Substitutes: 16 Fraser Brown, 17 Jamie Bhatti, 18 Willem Nel, 19 Tim Swinson, 20 David Denton, 21 Ali Price, 22 Nick Grigg, 23 Lee Jones

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