Vern Cotter (Gallo)
Guildford - Vern Cotter made four changes,
two of them enforced, to the Scotland starting XV for Sunday's Rugby World Cup
quarter-final with Australia from the one that edged Samoa 36-33 last Saturday.
Hooker Fraser Brown and lock Tim Swinson
come in for the suspended Ross Ford and Jonny Gray respectively - even though
the Scots have appealed against the three week bans imposed on the duo.
Cotter also brought in Blair Cowan in the
backrow replacing Ryan Wilson, who was sin-binned during the Samoa game, and
centre Peter Horne comes in for Matthew Scott.
Cowan, who was called up as a replacement
during the tournament, will fill a back row of non-Scotland born players with
Zimbabwe-born David Denton and another Kiwi in John Hardie.
The side will be captained by the
outstanding kicking scrum-half Greig Laidlaw, who kicked all the points when
the Scots pulled off a rare win in Australia in 2012 beating the Wallabies in appalling
weather conditions 12-6.
Laidlaw, who finished the pool stage as the
leading points scorer with 60, captains the side for the 21st time, four behind
record-holder David Sole and only needs one penalty on Sunday to reach the
landmark of 100 in Test rugby.
America-born wing Tommy Seymour could equal
the record of a Scot scoring in successive Test matches on Sunday as he has
touched down in his past four with former flyhalf Gregor Townsend holding the
record of five in 1999.
Scotland have only once ever reached the
semi-finals of the quadrennial global showpiece, in 1991 when they lost to
hosts England.
Teams:
Scotland: 15 Stuart Hogg, 14 Sean Maitland, 13 Mark Bennett, 12 Peter Horne, 11 Tommy Seymour, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Greig Laidlaw (captain), 8 David Denton, 7 John Hardie, 6 Blair Cowan, 5 Richie Gray, 4 Tim Swinson, 3 WP Nel, 2 Fraser Brown, 1 Alasdair Dickinson
Substitutes: 16 Kevin Bryce, 17 Gordon Reid, 18 Jon Welsh, 19 Alasdair
Strokosch, 20 Josh Strauss, 21 Henry Pyrgos, 22 Richie Vernon, 23 Sean
Lamont
Australia: TBA
