Greig Tonks and Lee Jones have been recalled to a much-changed Scotland side for Saturday’s Test against Australia.
Head coach Gregor Townsend has never been shy of altering a winning side and has done so again, with eight new faces and three positional changes in the matchday XV compared to the 34-13 win over Italy.
Of the four tryscorers last week, three have been left out – Tim Visser because he has not recovered from a rib injury, with Ross Ford and Damien Hoyland rested.
TEAM ANNOUNCEMENT | New back-three & front-row combinations, Jonny Gray & Hamish Watson come in at lock and back-row #AsOne pic.twitter.com/xlEvhVNf7S
— Scottish Rugby (@Scotlandteam) June 14, 2017
Ford claimed two scores against Italy but has to be satisfied with a place on the bench – if he comes on, he will match the Scotland caps record of 109 held by Chris Paterson.
“It is a brilliant achievement,” said Townsend. “It shows a great level of consistency in a game that has changed a lot.
“Not only that but he has been one of our best performers. Two tries last week were pretty good as well.
“This is a great achievement but we also believe he can carry on playing and have a big role up to and including the World Cup.”
Are you ready? Next up on Summer Tour this Saturday, @qantaswallabies v @Scotlandteam! #AsOne pic.twitter.com/ThDziqXfNR
— Scottish Rugby (@Scotlandteam) June 14, 2017
Explaining the changes, he added: “On this tour, we were always keen to make sure that players who were close to selection got an opportunity. A few got it last week, a few who were close to selection get it this week.
“When you put a squad together, you first put a team together that you believe can win. You want to see which players are able to perform at Test level and give them that opportunity – it is up to them after that.
“On this tour, I do believe, a lot of positions are very competitive.”
The changes see the two front-row units swapped in their entirety, the Glasgow trio starting and their Edinburgh counterparts on the bench.
#BREAKING l Your #Wallabies team to face Scotland this Saturday June 17 at Allianz Stadium 3pm AEST. #AUSvSCO #ArvoRugby pic.twitter.com/mLLPAzZ5JR
— Qantas Wallabies (@qantaswallabies) June 15, 2017
Jonny Gray comes in to partner Ben Toolis in the second row and Hamish Watson has recovered from his groin injury to start at flanker, with John Barclay shifting to the blindside and Ryan Wilson to number eight to accommodate him.
After playing out of position at full-back last week, Duncan Taylor reverts to centre where he partners Alex Dunbar. There is an entirely fresh back three, with Tonks returning at full-back for his first cap since 2015 and Jones on the wing for his first since 2012.
Tonks was a late call-up to the squad but Townsend said he has no worries about including him, even though he spent last season in the Championship with London Irish.
“He has played very well, we have watched a lot of his games,” Townsend insisted.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here