Scotland make 14 changes for encounter against Russia

Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend has made 14 changes to the starting line-up for their must-win World Cup game against Russia to be played on Wednesday at Shizuoka Stadium Ecopa.

The Dark Blues will need two bonus point wins in their last two games against Russia and Japan to make it to the quarter-finals. Japan hold the top position in the group and are yet to face a defeat while Ireland will need a bonus point win over Samoa in their final fixture which has a threat of being affected due to Typhoon Hagibis.

Edinburgh wing Darcy Graham is the only player retained in the XV from their win over Samoa with Tommy Seymour joining him on the right wing and Blair Kinghorn at fullback.

Pete Horne will form the centre partnership with Duncan Taylor while Adam Hastings has been handed the fly-half role with George Horne at scrum-half.

Zander Fagerson, George Turner and Gordon Reid have gained promotion to form the front-row with Scott Cummings and Ben Toolis at second row. John Barclay will captain the side with Fraser Brown and number eight Ryan Wilson at back-row.

“Any successful World Cup campaign is built on a squad effort and those players who didn’t get the opportunity to start against Samoa really helped provide that team with a quality week of preparation," said Townsend.

“Now it’s their chance to get stuck into our next important game as we enter the final week of our pool matches.”

Scotland starting line-up: 15 Blair Kinghorn, 14 Tommy Seymour, 13 Duncan Taylor, 12 Pete Horne, 11 Darcy Graham, 10 Adam Hastings, 9 George Horne, 8 Ryan Wilson, 7 Fraser Brown, 6 John Barclay (c), 5 Ben Toolis, 4 Scott Cummings, 3 Zander Fagerson, 2 George Turner, 1 Gordon Reid

Replacements: 16 Stuart McInally, 17 Simon Berghan, 18 Willem Nel, 19 Grant Gilchrist, 20 Magnus Bradbury, 21 Jamie Ritchie, 22 Henry Pyrgos, 23 Chris Harris