Scotland have made three changes to their team for Saturday’s trip to Italy as Gregor Townsend’s men target a first win of the 2020 Guinness Six Nations.
Stuart McInally comes in at hooker for Fraser Brown while Ben Toolis replaces the injured Jonny Gray in the second row.
The final change comes in the centres where Chris Harris is preferred to Huw Jones, with the Glasgow Warriors man dropping out of the matchday 23 altogether.
There are further changes on the bench where WP Nel returns in place of Simon Berghan, while Grant Gilchrist and Matt Fagerson also come in.
Finally Byron McGuigan gets an opportunity in the No.23 jersey to serve as outside backs cover.
Scotland have earned losing bonus points from each of their first two games against Ireland and England and Townsend believes the players coming into the side have earned their chance to start.
He said: “We believe Chris [Harris] and Stuart [McInally] deserve this opportunity. They were very close to the starting XV when we entered this campaign. We think this is the right time for them to come in.
“Chris has been excellent for Gloucester this season and has continued to make improvements since the summer. He works very hard on both sides of the ball, which will be important this week.
“Stuart [McInally] has shown over the past few weeks he’s back to full fitness and is raring to go and Ben gets an opportunity to start following Jonny’s injury against England.
“Second row is a position we have a lot of competition with a number of very good players available for selection. We’re looking forward to seeing how he combines again with Scott [Cummings] after a successful outing together against Russia in the World Cup.”
Scotland team to face Italy:
15. Stuart Hogg (Exeter Chiefs) (c) 14. Sean Maitland (Saracens) 13. Chris Harris (Gloucester) 12. Sam Johnson (Glasgow Warriors) 11. Blair Kinghorn (Edinburgh) 10. Adam Hastings (Glasgow Warriors) 9. Ali Price (Glasgow Warriors)
1. Rory Sutherland (Edinburgh) 2. Stuart McInally (Edinburgh) 3. Zander Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors) 4. Ben Toolis (Edinburgh) 5. Scott Cummings (Glasgow Warriors) 6. Jamie Ritchie (Edinburgh) 7. Hamish Watson (Edinburgh) 8. Magnus Bradbury (Edinburgh)
Replacements:
16. Fraser Brown (Glasgow Warriors) 17. Allan Dell (London Irish) 18. Willem Nel (Edinburgh) 19. Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh) 20. Matt Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors) 21. George Horne (Glasgow Warriors) 22. Rory Hutchinson (Northampton Saints) 23. Byron McGuigan (Sale Sharks)
