Townsend goes with his Lions backline
Scotland have played New Zealand 33 times and have never won. Gregor Townsend has picked his strongest available backline to try to change that on Saturday at Murrayfield, with kick-off at 2.10pm.
Finn Russell is back at fly-half, with Ben White alongside him at scrum-half. Huw Jones and Sione Tuipulotu are restored together in midfield, and Tuipulotu captains the side. Kyle Steyn and Jamie Dobie take the wings, Kyle Rowe plays full-back, and Blair Kinghorn goes to the bench. The pack has Rory Sutherland at loosehead in place of Pierre Schoeman, with Ewan Ashman and Zander Fagerson completing the front row, Gregor Brown and Scott Cummings in the second row, and a back row of Matt Fagerson, Rory Darge and Jack Dempsey.
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Two changes for New Zealand
The All Blacks arrive on the back of a 43-21 win over Australia in Sydney on 17 October, and they have made only two changes to the starting XV from that game. Ethan de Groot returns at loosehead for George Bower. Jordie Barrett is fit again at centre and takes the place of Timoci Tavatavanawai. Both of the men dropped sit on the bench.
Three more changes are among the replacements. Asafo Aumua is preferred at hooker because Samisoni Taukei’aho is injured, Christian Lio-Willie replaces the injured Shannon Frizell, and Anton Segner gets the nod over Duplessis Kirifi, who did not make the trip. Codie Taylor captains the side, with Beauden Barrett at full-back and Damian McKenzie at fly-half.
What follows for Scotland
This is the first of three November tests. Scotland face Australia on 15 November and Japan on 21 November, and the Nations Championship finals weekend at Twickenham follows on 27 to 29 November. In July they beat Argentina 47-38 and Fiji 33-17, and lost 42-28 to South Africa.
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