Blair Cowan and Pete Horne have been called into the Scotland team to face Australia on Sunday, at the expense of Ryan Wilson and Matt Scott who drop out of the 23 entirely. Perhaps looking to combat Pocock and Hooper at the breakdown – so far nigh on unstoppable – Cotter has picked openside Cowan alongside openside John Hardie who fills the 7 shirt.
Elsewhere, Cotter has picked the strongest team allowed by disciplinary bans with Fraser Brown starting at hooker and Swinson taking the place of Jonny Gray. On the bench are 2 back row forwards with potentially more breakdown/lineout usefulness available in the guise of Richie Vernon.
In the backs, only Horne is a real surprise but he does at least offer a second playmaker at 12 and while less hefty in some areas it is perhaps the most Australia-esque team we could pick.
One thing is for certain, this is a mobile team and does not look designed for boshing contests, but for speed. Can we outskill the Wallabies? If both teams play it could be fun to watch for the neutral.
It’s a long wait until Sunday to find out.
Scotland team to play Australia at Twickenham in the Rugby World Cup 2015 Quarter-Final
Sunday 18 October (kick-off 4pm) – live on ITV:
Stuart Hogg, Sean Maitland, Mark Bennett, Peter Horne, Tommy Seymour, Finn Russell, Greig Laidlaw (captain); Alasdair Dickinson, Fraser Brown, WP Nel, Tim Swinson, Richie Gray, Blair Cowan, John Hardie, David Denton.
Replacements: Kevin Bryce, Gordon Reid, Jon Welsh, Alasdair Strokosch, Josh Strauss, Henry Pyrgos, Richie Vernon, Sean Lamont