Hamish Watson returns to the starting XV and Ali Price to the bench as Gregor Townsend bolstered unbeaten Scotland with experience for the trip to Paris to play France on Sunday.
Watson last played in the All Blacks test in November. Price has been out of the matchday 23 for the first two games of the championship, the wins over England and Wales.
But both have big credit in the bank with Townsend over years. The head coach has never been afraid to alter a winning team.
‘We’ve not played at our best yet’
“The easy thing would be to say, ‘we’ve won a game, let’s not even have a discussion and just move on’,” he said. “You want to reward players who are playing well. But I said after the Wales and England games that we’ve not played at our best yet.
“We need to go up a few levels. After the England game we discussed a number of positions. The same thing happened after the Wales game.
“Hamish and Ali have both played very well for us in the past. They have been showing in training that they are ready to go again.
“We believe Hamish will be back at the level that we know he can play at. We feel he is a good foil for the way France want to play, but also adding speed to our attack.”
‘There’s only been two games played’
Gearing up for a big weekend ⚙️#AsOne pic.twitter.com/3vIuSmkDjS
— Scottish Rugby (@Scotlandteam) February 23, 2023
The Scots are playing down the expectation after the two opening wins.
“I think the players realise just how big of a test this is going to be,” added Townsend. “We’re playing one of the best teams in the world on their own patch. It’s a venue where we haven’t had much success over the last 100 years.
“But we feel there is much more to come from this group. We felt that way before the Wales game and we feel the same this week.
“The players drive that. It’s exciting going to Paris when we’re in the mix for the tournament.
“But there’s only been two games played. We know we have to improve again this week to still be in the mix going into the last two games.”
France have made one enforced change from the team that lost in Dublin. Prop Uini Antonio was banned after a high hit in that game.
His replacement is Montpellier’s Mohamed Haouas – famously sent off in the 2020 match against Scotland for throwing a punch at now Scotland skipper Jamie Ritchie.
Scotland team
Stuart Hogg (Exeter Chiefs); Kyle Steyn (Glasgow Warriors), Huw Jones (Glasgow Warriors), Sione Tuipulotu (Glasgow Warriors), Duhan van der Merwe (Edinburgh); Finn Russell (Racing 92), Ben White (London Irish); Pierre Schoeman (Edinburgh), George Turner (Glasgow Warriors), Zander Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors); Richie Gray (Glasgow Warriors), Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh), Jamie Ritchie (capt, Edinburgh), Hamish Watson (Edinburgh), Matt Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors)
Replacements: Fraser Brown (Glasgow Warriors), Jamie Bhatti (Glasgow Warriors), W P Nel (Edinburgh), Jonny Gray (Exeter Chiefs), Sam Skinner (Edinburgh), Jack Dempsey (Glasgow Warriors), Ali Price (Glasgow Warriors), Blair Kinghorn (Edinburgh).