Sam Skinner replaces Ritchie, who was injured during Scotland’s win over England; Townsend has changed his entire starting front row, with Pierre Schoeman, Stuart McInally and WP Nel selected; Sione Tuipulotu replaces Sam Johnson at inside centre
Last Updated: 10/02/22 1:17pm
Gregor Townsend has made five changes for Scotland’s Six Nations trip to Wales following their tournament-opening victory over England.
Sam Skinner takes the place of Jamie Ritchie in the back row, after it was confirmed the 25-year-old will miss the rest of the tournament having undergone surgery on a hamstring injury suffered against England.
“Jamie unfortunately is going to be out for a wee while,” Townsend said. “He’ll miss the championship.
“He had surgery a couple of days ago on his hamstring – that went well.”
Townsend has changed the entire front row from the side that beat England at Murrayfield, inserting Pierre Schoeman, Stuart McInally and WP Nel to his starting 15, while Sione Tuipulotu replaces Sam Johnson at inside centre.
Zander Fagerson, George Turner and Rory Sutherland drop to the bench, while Sam Johnson has been released to play for Glasgow on Friday.
Despite beating England, Scotland were far from their best on the opening weekend of the tournament and needed a late surge to secure a narrow victory over Eddie Jones’ side at Murrayfield.
Townsend added: “Once you get into the detail of it and the review of the game, we know we weren’t at our best and there were areas we did things really well but there’s a lot of areas we can improve.”
Edinburgh’s Grant Gilchrist will win his 50th cap at lock and has been made vice-captain to mark the occasion.
Glasgow flanker Rory Darge is among the substitutes and will win his first cap if he gets off the bench. Scrum-half Ben White, who scored a debut try against England last weekend, is again a replacement, alongside Blair Kinghorn and Cam Redpath.
Your Scotland team for Saturday’s @SixNationsRugby clash with Wales has been confirmed.
Read more ? https://t.co/0c7KvfgHbI#AsOne pic.twitter.com/xDd4qaV0Yy
Scotland: 15 Stuart Hogg, 14 Darcy Graham, 13 Chris Harris, 12 Sione Tuipulotu, 11 Duhan van der Merwe, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Ali Price; 1 Pierre Schoeman, 2 Stuart McInally, 3 WP Nel, 4 Jonny Gray, 5 Grant Gilchrist, 6 Sam Skinner, 7 Hamish Watson, 8 Matt Fagerson.
Replacements: 16 George Turner, 17 Rory Sutherland, 18 Zander Fagerson, 19 Magnus Bradbury, 20 Rory Darge, 21 Ben White, 22 Blair Kinghorn, 23 Cameron Redpath