NICE, France (AP) — Scotland changed two forwards and two backs to the side facing Tonga at the Rugby World Cup on Sunday.
The Scots opened with an 18-3 defeat to defending champion South Africa two weeks ago.
On Friday, prop Rory Sutherland and lock Scott Cummings replaced Pierre Schoeman and Grant Gilchrist, while centre Chris Harris — who played in all of Scotland's pool games at the 2019 World Cup — and right wing Kyle Steyn pushed Huw Jones and Darcy Graham into the reserves.
“We know this is a really important game for us so we’ve put as strong a team as we can to win it," coach Gregor Townsend said. "The last 20 minutes are going to be important, so to have players like Darcy Graham, Huw Jones and George Horne coming off the bench will give us something different.”
Tonga will have bad memories of Steyn, who scored four tries in a 60-14 win when the sides last met two years ago. The Scots scored 10 tries that day at Murrayfield.
Gilchrist dropped out of the matchday 23 for the game in Nice.
Both teams are playing their second Pool B game, with Tonga dispatched 59-16 by Ireland in its first game.
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Scotland: Blair Kinghorn, Kyle Steyn, Chris Harris, Sione Tuipulotu, Duhan van der Merwe, Finn Russell, Ben White; Jack Dempsey, Rory Darge, Jamie Ritchie (captain), Scott Cummings, Richie Gray, Zander Fagerson, George Turner, Rory Sutherland. Reserves: Ewan Ashman, Pierre Schoeman, WP Nel, Sam Skinner, Matt Fagerson, George Horne, Huw Jones, Darcy Graham.
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AP Rugby World Cup: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby
