Bath Rugby star Finn Russell returns to the Scotland side as one of three changes to the starting XV for Saturday’s Nations Championship clash with South Africa in Pretoria.
The talismanic stand-off sat out last weekend’s campaign-opening victory in Argentina as he completed his recovery from a calf injury that cruelly caused him to miss the last three games of Bath’s season.
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The 33-year-old last ran out on May 16 in a Gallagher PREM victory against Newcastle Red Bulls and his absence was sorely missed by the Blue, Black and White, who were beaten in the play-off semi-final at home to Exeter Chiefs, with his replacement Santi Carreras’ game management questioned under immense pressure in the final minute of the game.
Russell takes the place of Bristol Bears’ Tom Jordan, who drops to the bench in the only change to the backline, which beat Argentina 47-38 last weekend.
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Speaking about the fitness of key playmaker Russell, Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend said: “He trained fine on Tuesday and he trained well at the end of the week.
“Wednesday’s session he trained fully with the team, he did his own thing on Friday and then the guys who weren’t involved did a session on Saturday after the team run and he’s trained fine today.
“I think he’s definitely over the calf injury. He may have been fit at the weekend. We just felt that he needed more training to really be available for the tough Test matches ahead of us, especially this one this weekend.”
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There are two alterations to the pack. Zander Fagerson replaces Northampton Saints tighthead Elliot Millar Mills, who suffered a campaign-ending injury against Argentina.
Gregor Brown, who came off the bench to score in Cordoba, starts in the second row in place of Jonny Gray, who drops out altogether.
Bath’s Josh Bayliss, Will Hurd, Magnus Bradbury and Stafford McDowall are all added to the bench in a 6-2 split, with last weekend’s replacements George Horne, Fergus Burke and Darcy Graham out of the 23.
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Scotland head to Pretoria eyeing their first-ever win in South Africa.
Scotland team: 15. Kyle Rowe – Glasgow Warriors (18), 14. Kyle Steyn – Glasgow Warriors (34) – Vice Captain, 13. Rory Hutchinson – Northampton Saints (12), 12. Sione Tuipulotu – Glasgow Warriors (39) – Captain, 11. Jamie Dobie – Glasgow Warriors (20), 10. Finn Russell – Bath (94), 9. Ben White – Toulon (37); 1. Pierre Schoeman – Edinburgh Rugby (50), 2. Ewan Ashman – Edinburgh Rugby (36), 3. Zander Fagerson – Glasgow Warriors (82), 4. Gregor Brown – Glasgow Warriors (17), 5. Scott Cummings – Glasgow Warriors (50), 6. Matt Fagerson – Glasgow Warriors (65), 7. Rory Darge – Glasgow Warriors (40) – Vice Captain, 8. Jack Dempsey – Toshiba Brave Lupus (34)
Replacements: 16. Gregor Hiddleston – Glasgow Warriors (1), 17. Rory Sutherland – Glasgow Warriors (49), 18. Will Hurd – Leicester Tigers (10), 19. Alex Samuel – Glasgow Warriors (4), 20. Josh Bayliss – Bath (16), 21. Magnus Bradbury – Edinburgh Rugby (22), 22. Tom Jordan – Bristol Bears (18), 23. Stafford McDowall – Glasgow Warriors (16)
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