Gregor Townsend has made 6 alterations to his starting XV for the Scotland v France clash at Murrayfield. Across his 8 matches in charge the head coach has averaged 7 changes per game with a high of 12 – from Australia (A) to Fiji (A) and also from Fiji (A) to Samoa (H) – and a low of 2 – from Samoa (H) to New Zealand (H). Has Toony selected the right group to flay the French?
Tale of the tape
BACKS
57 Tries 16
230 Total caps 97
112 6N caps 54
27.9 Average age 27.8
FORWARDS
891kg Pack weight 895kg
221 Total caps 166
92 6N caps 78
27.9 Average age 26.6
SUBSTITUTES
119 Total caps 117
50 6N caps 49
27.4 Average age 26.3
Scotland changes from last Test (v Wales)
- 12/13 – Horne for Harris (with Jones moving from 12 to 13)
[+] second playmaker; additional option for kicking from hand; experience; Jones back in his best position. - 11 – Maitland for McGuigan
[+] positioning; second full back; experience. - 9 – Laidlaw for Price
[=] leadership – Scotland captain until his injury last season; steadying / controlling influence; goal kicking. - 3 – Berghan for Welsh
[+] higher work rate around the pitch; Welsh can be more effective in a 20 minute spell from the bench. - 4 – Gilchrist for Toolis
[=] better in the tight exchanges; leadership – Vern Cotter’s original choice for Scotland captain - 8 – Wilson for Du Preez
[+] work rate; leadership – current captain of Glasgow.
Teams
15 Stuart Hogg
14 T. Seymour
13 Huw Jones
12 Peter Horne
11 Sean Maitland
10 Finn Russell
9 Greig Laidlaw
ADV Scotland
ADV Scotland
ADV France
EVEN
ADV France
ADV Scotland
EVEN
15 Geoffrey Palis
14 Teddy Thomas
13 Remi Lamerat
12 G. Dumayrou
11 Virimi Vakatawa
10 Lionel Beauxis
9 M. Machenaud
1 Gordon Reid
2 Stuart McInally
3 Simon Berghan
4 Grant Gilchrist
5 Jonny Gray
6 John Barclay
7 Hamish Watson
8 Ryan Wilson
ADV France
ADV France
ADV France
ADV Scotland
EVEN
EVEN
ADV Scotland
EVEN
1 Jefferson Poirot
2 G. Guirado (c)
3 Rabah Slimani
4 Arthur Iturria
5 S. Vahaamahina
6 Wenceslas Lauret
7 Yacouba Camara
8 Marco Tauleigne
16 Scott Lawson
17 Jamie Bhatti
18 Jon Welsh
19 Ben Toolis
20 David Denton
21 Ali Price
22 Chris Harris
23 Blair Kinghorn
ADV France
ADV France
ADV France
ADV Scotland
ADV France
ADV Scotland
ADV France
ADV Scotland
16 Adrien Pelissie
17 Eddy Ben Arous
18 C. Gomes Sa
19 P. Gabrillagues
20 Louis Picamoles
21 Baptiste Serin
22 Anthony Belleau
23 Benjamin Fall
Overall
Backs – advantage Scotland
Both sides have pace and attacking talent to burn in the back 3 – but it will mean little without a consistent supply of decent ball. With Remi Lamerat the only ‘big’ (100kg+ centre) it should be more about guile than bosh in the midfield. Ultimately though the most influential men will be the half backs. France will be wary of the mercurial Finn Russell – but will his rough edges be smoothed out or removed altogether by Greig Laidlaw? The combative scrum half will undoubtedly look to take more responsibility on himself. Scotland will be conscious that the booming boot of Lionel Beauxis will put the French in the areas of the pitch their large pack can take advantage of.
Forwards – advantage France
The French have an outstanding front row – but with the way the scrum is refereed these days they weren’t able to make much of their advantage in this area against Ireland. The Scottish scrum will just be looking to get a close as possible to parity at the set piece. The back 5 of respective packs are filled with players who have a huge workrate. There will be very little between them and very little space. It will come down to who can get more right (and keep the error count down) on the day.
Subs – advantage France
It’s more of the same for the replacement front rows although there is probably less of a gulf between the replacements than the starting units. Each side’s key game changer is likely to reflect the way the two nations want to play the game. France will bring Louis Picamoles on to add yet more power to run over Scotland in attack and squeeze the life out of them in defence. When Scotland introduce Ali Price it will most likely be with a view to increasing the tempo and taking advantage of running against tired forwards.
Miscellany
– 17 of the 46 players were on duty the for the last Scotland v France encounter at Murrayfield in 2016.
– The Scotland starting XV has 118 more caps than the group that kicked off the 6 Nations against Wales (451 v 333).
– Blair Kinghorn will become 10th player to make his Scotland debut under Gregor Townsend. That’s closing in on the 12 first caps handed out by predecessor Vern Cotter in his opening season in charge (the equivalent numbers for Scott Johnson and Andy Robinson were 15 and 5 respectively).
– Geoffrey Doumayrou will be the 9th French player to make his 6 Nations debut in this campaign. Kinghorn will be the 5th Scottish player to achieve the same feat.