Darge to start his game for Scots against France

EDINBURGH : Rory Darge will make his first start for Scotland on Saturday when they take on unbeaten France in the Six Nations Championship at Murrayfield in one of three changes to the starting line-up announced by coach Gregor Townsend on Thursday.

Darge debuted off the bench in Scotland’s last outing as they lost 20-17 to Wales and is one of two changes to the loose forwards.

Magnus Bradbury starts for the injured Matt Fagerson, while Darge takes the place of Sam Skinner, who moved to the second row were Jonny Gray is ruled out through injury.

Zander Fagerson returns to the front row starting line-up in place of WP Nel, who will be on the bench.

Townsend left the backline unchanged after the narrow loss in Cardiff.

Centre Mark Bennett makes his return to a Scotland squad for the first time since 2018 and will start from the bench. The centre has impressed for Edinburgh this season and will look to add to his 22 caps in an international career that has seen him start on 17 occasions and score six tries.

Team:

15-Stuart Hogg (capt.), 14-Darcy Graham, 13-Chris Harris, 12-Sione Tuipulotu, 11-Duhan van der Merwe, 10-Finn Russell, 9-Ali Price, 8-Magnus Bradbury, 7-Hamish Watson, 6-Rory Darge, 5-Grant Gilchrist, 4-Sam Skinner, 3-Zander Fagerson, 2-Stuart McInally, 1-Pierre Schoeman

Replacements: 16-George Turner, 17-Oli Kebble, 18-WP Nel, 19-Jamie Hodgson, 20-Nick Haining, 21-Ben White, 22-Blair Kinghorn, 23-Mark Bennett.

(Writing by Mark Gleeson in Cape Town; Editing by Alison Williams)