Scotland’s Cameron Redpath will start at inside centre and George Horne at scrumhalf as coach Gregor Townsend made three changes for Saturday’s Six Nations clash with Italy in Rome and opted for a 6-2 split between forwards and backs on the bench.
The other change to the starting lineup sees flanker Andy Christie on the side of the scrum for Jamie Ritchie, who drops to a bench packed with forwards ahead of the anticipated physical confrontation.
“Andy has been in really consistent form for Saracens and has come off the bench for us in the last two games and made a difference,” Townsend said.
“He brings energy and has done really well in defence, so we think he has earned that right to start.”
Townsend said the expected workload of the forwards and the fact that he has players in his backline who can feature in multiple positions is behind the 6-2 split on the bench.
“We see the work-rate of the forwards as being crucial this weekend, so we want to be able to manage their load. We also have players in the backline who can swap positions, (fullback) Blair Kinghorn is one who can cover other areas.”
Redpath is in for the injured Sione Tuipulotu, while Horne replaced Ben White, who has been a fixture in the side in this championship. Ali Price is replacement scrumhalf on the bench.
“Cam has been in really good form, both in training and when he has had the opportunity this year,” Townsend said.
“We wanted to reward both George and Ali, who have been in very good form both for us and their clubs. Ben has played a lot of rugby since September so we want to give him a rest.”
Scotland are unbeaten in their last 13 meetings with Italy and last suffered defeat in Rome in 2012 when they lost 13-6. They have won two of their three games in this year’s Six Nations, suffering a controversial 20-16 home defeat by France.
Scotland are second in the standings, six points behind Ireland, while Italy prop up the table on three after a draw – 13-13 against France last time out – and two defeats.
Scotland team:
15-Blair Kinghorn, 14-Kyle Steyn, 13-Huw Jones, 12- Cameron Redpath, 11-Duhan van der Merwe, 10-Finn Russell (co-captain), 9-George Horne; 1-Pierre Schoeman, 2-George Turner, 3-Zander Fagerson, 4-Grant Gilchrist, 5-Scott Cummings, 6-Andy Christie, 7-Rory Darge (co-captain), 8-Jack Dempsey
Replacements: 16-Ewan Ashman, 17-Alec Hepburn, 18-Elliot Millar-Mills, 19-Sam Skinner, 20- Jamie Ritchie, 21-Matt Fagerson, 22-Ali Price, 23-Kyle Rowe
