Scotland name an unchanged Starting XV

Nov 13 • General News, International, World Rugby • 2180 Views • Comments Off on Scotland name an unchanged Starting XV

Head coach Vern Cotter has shown faith in his winning Scotland formula for this Saturday’s visit of world champions New Zealand to BT Murrayfield Stadium (kick-off 5.30pm).

All 15 men that started the national team’s impressive 41-31 win over Argentina last weekend will once again kick off the second viagogo Autumn Test.

The reselection means that all five of the match-winning try-scorers – locks Jonny and Richie Gray and back-three trio Stuart Hogg, Sean Maitland and Tommy Seymour – all earn a return to the fold.

viagogo man-of-the-match winning captain Greig Laidlaw will once again orchestrate the back division alongside stand-off Finn Russell and a young midfield partnership of Alex Dunbar and Mark Bennett.

Packing down with the second-row Gray brothers is the experienced front-row trio of Alasdair Dickinson, Ross Ford and Euan Murray, and the promising back-row combo of Rob Harley, Blair Cowan and Adam Ashe.

Despite the same starting XV, Cotter has made four changes to Scotland’s replacements bench.

Glasgow Warriors forwards Fraser Brown (hooker) and Tim Swinson (lock) replace Scott Lawson and Jim Hamilton, while Johnnie Beattie and Chris Cusiter come in for Alasdair Strokosch and the injured Henry Pyrgos (head knock).

Last weekend we had the ball and looked dangerous, and showed great character to keep faith and confidence in our attacking philosophy.

– – Scotland head coach Vern Cotter

“I really enjoyed watching the players play for each other against Argentina.

“They picked themselves up time and time again, and encouraged each other to keep on working for our collective cause.

“It was fantastic to see, as was our ability to get over the line and score tries, all of which contributed to a strong case for reselection.”

We showed last weekend that we’re developing an attack than can cause opposition teams problems. If we can force the All Blacks into making errors then we can give ourselves a chance.

“In saying that, the All Blacks are the world’s best at exposing errors so we’ll also have to be absolutely clinical in both our decision making and execution if we are to go one better than the 1983 team that drew with New Zealand here at BT Murrayfield.”

Scotland team v New Zealand at BT Murrayfield

Saturday 15 November (kick-off 5.30pm)

 

15 Stuart Hogg (Glasgow Warriors); 25 caps

14 Sean Maitland  (Glasgow Warriors); 14 caps

13 Mark Bennett  (Glasgow Warriors), 1 cap

12 Alex Dunbar (Glasgow Warriors); 9 caps

11 Tommy Seymour (Glasgow Warriors); 11 caps

10 Finn Russell (Glasgow Warriors); 3 caps

9 Greig Laidlaw CAPTAIN (Gloucester); 32 caps

1 Alasdair Dickinson (Edinburgh Rugby); 37 caps

2 Ross Ford (Edinburgh Rugby); 78 caps

3 Euan Murray (Glasgow Warriors); 61 caps

4 Richie Gray (Castres); 40 caps

5 Jonny Gray  (Glasgow Warriors); 6 caps

6 Rob Harley (Glasgow Warriors); 8 caps

7 Blair Cowan (London Irish); 4 caps

8 Adam Ashe (Glasgow Warriors); 2 caps

Substitutes

16 Fraser Brown (Glasgow Warriors); 1 cap

17 Gordon Reid (Glasgow Warriors); 4 caps

18 Geoff Cross (London Irish); 33 caps

19 Tim Swinson (Glasgow Warriors); 9 caps

20 Johnnie Beattie (Castres); 32 caps

21 Chris Cusiter (Sale Sharks); 68 caps

22 Duncan Weir (Glasgow Warriors); 16 caps

23 Sean Lamont (Glasgow Warriors); 89 caps

 

Referee: Romain Poite (FFR)

AR: John Lacey, Peter Fitzgibbon (both IRFU)

TMO: Gareth Simmonds (WRU)

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