\n<\/p>\n
Max Williamson and Grant Gilchrist form a new-look second row and Zander Fagerson is back in the starting XV as Scotland chase victory away to Ireland that could lead to a first Six Nations title.<\/b><\/p>\n
Scotland’s sensational 50-40 win over France at Murrayfield has put them in contention for a first championship since their 1999 triumph in the old Five Nations.<\/p>\n
However, Scotland have lost their past 11 matches against Ireland, have not won in Dublin since 2010 and have never won four games in a Six Nations campaign.<\/p>\n
They also need defending champions France to slip up at home to England.<\/p>\n
Head coach Gregor Townsend insists his squad are “fresh” and “loving playing together” after an incredible display against the French but played down questions referencing the Dublin showdown as a cup final.<\/p>\n
“We’ve not talked about that,” he said of the various title permutations. It’s the final opportunity for this group to go out and play.<\/p>\n
“It’ll be a different game than last week. You’ve got to adapt, stick together for that 80 minutes and give it everything.<\/p>\n
“It’s out of our hands really. We can only do a certain amount and that’s good in a way too. It’s a game for us to play against an opponent that’s had the upper hand on us for years.<\/p>\n
“They’ve got a brilliant record at home. It’s a real opportunity, a challenge but an opportunity for us to go and deliver an even better performance than we did last week.”<\/p>\n
Locks Gregor Brown and Scott Cummings, who started in the wins over England and France are ruled out through injury.<\/p>\n
Gilchrist will win his 88th cap for his country, becoming Scotland’s all-time record appearance-maker for a second row.<\/p>\n
Williamson is given a second chance after his early removal in the comeback victory in Wales.<\/p>\n
Having come off the bench at the halfway stage against France, Zander Fagerson reclaims his place from D’Arcy Rae.<\/p>\n
Winger Kyle Steyn, who has scored three tries in the tournament, is fit after going off with a gashed leg last weekend.<\/p>\n
There are changes on the bench as back-row Magnus Bradbury, lock Alex Craig and winger \/ full-back Kyle Rowe make the matchday 23 for this first time in this campaign.<\/p>\n
Winger Duhan van der Merwe is among those sidelined, along with back-up fly-half Adam Hastings and props Elliot Millar Mills and Nathan McBeth, while Jamie Ritchie and Jamie Dobie picked up injuries earlier in the tournament.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Max Williamson and Grant Gilchrist form a new-look second row and Zander Fagerson is back in the starting XV as Scotland chase victory away to Ireland that could lead to a first Six Nations title. Scotland’s sensational 50-40 win over France at Murrayfield has put them in contention for a first championship since their 1999<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rugby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}