England unchanged for Scotland tie
England prop Joe Marler
©Press Association
England have named an unchanged starting XV and bench for Saturday's RBS 6 Nations clash with Scotland at Murrayfield.
Glasgow head coach Gregor Townsend believes Scotland can still shock England at Murrayfield on Saturday - despite their dismal defeat in Dublin.
They now take on the Auld Enemy but Townsend - who had nine players in the starting line-up against Joe Schmidt's side, with Pat MacArthur and Chris Cusiter joining the action from the bench - is certain the Scots can respond with a winning display.
"We showed in the first half in Dublin that we can go up against the best teams in the Championships. It's about taking chances and sustaining that level of performance for 80 minutes.
"You don't get any bigger motivation than playing England at home and the fact both teams are coming in off a defeat means the focus will only be higher."
The Glasgow full-back, Stuart Hogg's broken-field running talents have often sparked calls for him to be pushed up to outside centre or even stand-off in a bid to make use of his pace and agility.
Scotland coach Scott Johnson has already admitted he would like to give the Glasgow man a run at number 10 but his Scotstoun boss believes he is best staying put where he is.
Townsend said: "Stuart had a superb game at the weekend, he was one of the best performers over the three games, never mind just in Dublin.
"It's good to see him back in a Scotland jersey and getting involved in play. He looked fit and was breaking through tackles which is fantastic for Scotland going forward.
"He has got such good basic skills - his passing, his kicking, his ball-carrying - but gets a lot of opportunities at full-back. You see often that full-backs are second only to fly-halves in the number of touches of the ball they get so I'm not sure you would see him any more involved than he is now.
"You see him getting up to become first or second receiver a lot of the time and that is what you want. He's playing so well at full-back right now so why would you change that?"
Having announced on Tuesday that he would keep faith with the 23 that slipped to a late 26-24 defeat by France, head coach Stuart Lancaster has also opted to retain the same line-up.
"It's good to be able to select the same players and they are all determined to put last week's result behind them and build on the performance," Lancaster said.
"Scotland will be hugely motivated by their defeat in Dublin and, as we found two years ago, Murrayfield is a tough place to play."
The only outstanding concerns from the championship opener in Paris were the injuries sustained by lock Courtney Lawes and wing Jonny May.
However, Lawes' cheekbone damage was revealed to be only bruising and he was cleared to play in Edinburgh the following day and May was passed fit 24 hours later despite having incurred a fractured nose.
May, who lasted just nine minutes at the Stade de France, continues on the left wing and will win his third cap, while centre Luther Burrell and right wing Jack Nowell make their second Test appearances.
Burrell crossed on his debut and alongside fellow international newcomer Nowell grew in stature as a chaotic but compelling match unfolded in Paris.
Lancaster has retained half-backs Danny Care and Owen Farrell following their impressive night in Paris and the pack, superb once again, remains intact with openside Chris Robshaw at the helm.
Wasps prop Matt Mullan will travel to Edinburgh as the 24th man.
England are hoping to avoid a third successive Test defeat when they face Scotland having lost to France and 30-22 to New Zealand in the autumn.
In both defeats they overcame imposing early deficits only to fall short with stirring fightbacks founded on character.
But they depart for Edinburgh on Thursday night knowing that another loss would end any chance of supplanting Wales as Six Nations champions.
Scotland have not prevailed in the fixture since winning 15-9 at Murrayfield in 2008, although the rivals fought out a 15-15 draw at the same venue four years ago.
Lancaster's reign opened with a dour 13-6 victory against Scotland in 2012.
©Press Association
