Scotland show faith in winning team
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Head coach Vern Cotter has shown faith in his winning Scotland formula for this Saturday’s visit of world champions New Zealand to Murrayfield Stadium.
All 15 men that started the national team’s impressive 41-31 win over Argentina last weekend will once again kick off the second 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.
Man-of-the-match winning captain Greig Laidlaw will once again orchestrate the back division alongside flyhalf Finn Russell and a young midfield partnership of Alex Dunbar and Mark Bennett.
Packing down with the secondrow Gray brothers is the experienced front row trio of Alasdair Dickinson, Ross Ford and Euan Murray, and the promising loose forward combo of Rob Harly, 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 and Tim Swinson 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," Cotter said.
“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 Murrayfield.”
Scotland: 15 Stuart Hogg, 14 Sean Maitland, 13 Mark Bennett, 12 Alex Dunbar, 11 Tommy Seymour, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Greig Laidlaw (captain), 8 Adam Ashe, 7 Blair Cowan, 6 Rob Harley, 5 Jonny Gray, 4 Richie Gray, 3 Euan Murray, 2 Ross Ford, 1 Alasdair Dickinson.
Replacements: 16 Fraser Brown, 17 Gordon Reid, 18 Geoff Cross, 19 Tim Swinson, 20 Johnnie Beattie, 21 Chris Cusiter, 22 Duncan Weir, 23 Sean Lamont.
Date: Saturday, November 15
Venue: Murrayfield, Edinburgh
Kick-off: 17.30 (17.30 GMT; 06.30, Sunday November 16 NZ time)
Referee: Romain Poite (France)
Assistant referees: Johnny Lacey (Ireland), Stuart Berry (South Africa)
TMO: Gareth Simmonds (Wales)
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