Six Nations 2017: Scotland's Hamish Watson replaces John Hardie for England match

Hamish WatsonImage source, SNS
Image caption,

Edinburgh's Hamish Watson replaces his club-mate John Hardie

Six Nations Championship: England v Scotland

Venue: Twickenham Stadium Date: Saturday, 11 March Kick-off: 16:00 GMT

Coverage: Live on BBC Radio 5 live & BBC Radio Scotland, plus live text commentary via the BBC Sport website and BBC Sport app

Head coach Vern Cotter has brought Edinburgh flanker Hamish Watson into Scotland's starting XV for Saturday's Calcutta Cup match against England.

In the only change to the team, the back-rower replaces club-mate John Hardie, who is injured, while Cornell du Preez comes on to the bench.

It means the backline is unchanged for the trip to Twickenham, a venue where Scotland have not won since 1983.

Ali Price again deputises at scrum-half for injured skipper Greig Laidlaw.

Image caption,

Scotland have scored more tries in their last eight Championship games than the previous three seasons combined

He and stand-off Finn Russell are likely to be key figures as the Scots seek a third win in this year's championship following Murrayfield successes against Ireland and Wales.

While Scotland seek their first Triple Crown since 1990, England are aiming to equal New Zealand's record of 18 straight Test wins for a tier-one nation.

Watson started the first two matches of the campaign and, to earn his eighth cap, replaced Hardie in the first half of the game against Wales when he damaged his knee.

Glasgow Warriors provide the entire Scotland front row of Gordon Reid, Fraser Brown and Zander Fagerson, backed by locks Jonny and Richie Gray and with captain John Barclay and number eight Ryan Wilson completing the back-row.

"There's a lot to play for and several reasons why we should be able to get up for this game," said Cotter in his penultimate match as head coach.

"We've rested, recovered and prepared as best we can for this game. We've asked some questions of ourselves and the areas we think we can improve and we're confident we can play better as a team.

"The challenge is for us to combine the best parts of our performances so far in this campaign in to one excellent performance at Twickenham this Saturday.

"We'll need that to put us in a position to win this game and will enjoy the challenge of doing that against an England team that hasn't lost in a while."

Scotland: Scotland: Hogg; Seymour, Jones, Dunbar, Visser; Russell, Price; Reid, Brown, Fagerson, R Gray, J Gray, Barclay, Watson, Wilson.

Replacements: Ford, Dell, Berghan, Swinson, Du Preez, Pyrgos, Weir, Bennett.

Around the BBC

Related internet links

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.