The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Townsend makes nine changes
SCOTLAND: NEL BOOSt AS NEw HEAD COACH PREPARES tO tACKLE ItALy
Gregor Townsend has been forced to ring the changes as he takes charge of Scotland for the first time when they kick off their summer tour against Italy in Singapore on Saturday.
The new head coach had stressed the need for continuity, but with key players away on the Lions tour, others dropping out through injury and some returning that was always going to be difficult.
Townsend has made nine changes to his starting XV from the side that played the same opposition in the RBS Six Nations in March.
The big plus is being able to start WP Nel, the Edinburgh tighthead who would have been a shoo-in for the Lions but for a neck injury that kept him down to 27 minutes of action since October.
Despite his lack of action Nel will start his first Test since the summer tour last year, having featured for the Barbarians 11 days ago.
“If you start someone who has been out, you can control their game time,” Townsend said. “Off the bench, you can’t really control if somebody gets injured.
“WP has trained really well, showed excellent work rate, got stuck into all contact sessions and is the player in our squad who has played most recently. He got a lot of confidence out of that game for the Barbarians.”
Stuart Hogg and Tommy Seymour, off with the Lions, are replaced by Duncan Taylor and Damien Hoyland respectively, Matt Scott comes into the centre in place of Huw Jones, who tore a knee ligament.
The rest of the backline is the one that played in Vern Cotter’s last game.
The forwards have changed heavily, with lock Jonny Gray rested after an exhausting season and flanker Hamish Watson missing out with a minor groin problem.
Only hooker Ross Ford and skipper John Barclay featured in both sides, with Josh Strauss returning at No 8 after a kidney injury, and lock Ben Toolis winning his second cap two years after his first. Scotland: D Taylor (Saracens); D Hoyland (Edinburgh), M Scott (Gloucester), A Dunbar (Glasgow), T Visser (Harlequins); F Russell (Glasgow), A Price (Glasgow); A Dell (Edinburgh), R Ford (Edinburgh), WP Nel (Edinburgh), T Swinson (Glasgow), B Toolis (Edinburgh), J Barclay (Scarlets), J Hardie (Edinburgh), J Strauss (Glasgow).
Replacements: F Brown (Glasgow), G Reid (Glasgow), Z Fagerson (Glasgow), R Harley (Glasgow), M Bradbury (Edinburgh), R Wilson (Glasgow), H Pyrgos (Glasgow), P Horne (Glasgow).