Scotland have named their side to face Italy at Murrayfield on Saturday and make two changes to the side which lost 38-18 to England at the weekend.
Ross Ford comes in at hooker for Dougie Hall, who is named on the bench, though Pat MacArthur is named as an alternative should Hall not recover from the knee injury he sustained at the weekend.
Rob Harley also comes into the team in place of Alasdair Strokosch who is seeing a specialist to assess a suspected fractured eye socket.
Harley will be making his debut on Saturday and the 22 year-old Glasgow flanker admitted that he will be feeling the nerves ahead of the encounter with France’s conquerors, Italy:
“Will I have any nerves? Yeah, definitely. Huge nerves, but I will try and use that to my advantage.â€
“I’ll be really nervous in the build-up but hopefully as I get towards kick-off I will be able to focus on what I’ve got to do and by the time I get out on the pitch, there won’t be so many nerves. That’s the plan anyway.”
Ford was dropped from the starting line up last week having started the last 24 of Scotland’s Six Nations matches, but last season’s captain will now win his 64th cap from the 1st minute.
Ireland have called up four players to their squad to face England as injury cover after Gordon D’Arcy, Keith Earls and Peter O’Mahony all faced injury scares following their win against Wales.
Andrew Trimble is called up to the squad, and is in line to win his 50th cap, alongside Darren Cave, his Ulster colleague, Connacht’s Robbie Henshaw and Leinster’s Rhys Ruddock.
France have named Thierry Dusautoir as their captain following a back injury sustained by original captain, Pascal Pape, in defeat to Italy on Sunday.
Scotland Squad:
15. Stuart Hogg 14. Sean Maitland 13. Sean Lamont 12. Matt Scott 11. Tim Visser 10. Ruaraidh Jackson 9. Greig Laidlaw; 1. Ryan Grant 2. Ross Ford 3. Euan Murray 4. Richie Gray 5. Jim Hamilton 6. Rob Harley 7. Kelly Brown (c) 8. Johnnie Beattie.
Replacements: 16. Dougie Hall/Pat MacArthur 17. Moray Low 18. Geoff Cross 19. Alastair Kellock 20. David Denton 21. Henry Pyrgos 22. Duncan Weir 23. Max Evans.
